Now prepaid power meters at Bhopal stn

Bhopal: Vendors at Habibganj and Bhopal railway station will soon have to recharge electrical meter like mobile and DTH. Bhopal railway division is in process of installing electrical meters at every station. There will be a mobile SIM-like card in every meter. Vendors can recharge the card and as soon as money in card gets exhausted, there won't be electricity supply.

Once the system is in place, power theft will come to stop and will give freedom from the drudgery of paying bill. Bhopal Railway division will receive a revenue of Rs 20 lakh per year, said an official of power engineering department of railways.

A month after inviting tenders, work for installation of electrical meters will begin. In the first stage, around 150 meters will be installed at Habibganj, Bhopal, Bina, and Itarsi. After this, meters will be installed in kiosks of others stations, said I A Siddique, PRO, Railway Division.

Railway vendors get electricity at Rs 4.65 per unit. Power engineering department of railway officials said vendors tamper with installed meter, but prepaid meters are tamper-proof. No vendor would be able to indulge in power pilferage. According to vigilance and railway officials, 30 cases of power theft were registered in 2015. Officials put power theft in Bhopal railway division stations at Rs 2 or 3 lakh per month.


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