Prime Minister’s Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Advisor Dr Towfiq-E-Elahi Chowdhury, Bir Bikram, urged all for ensuring services to subscribers.
“We will celebrate “Mujib Borsho” by ensuring effective services to all through the government’s ongoing development programmes,” he told this on Wednesday while witnessing a contract signing ceremony for smart pre-payment metering project as the chief guest at Mukti Hall, Bidyut Bhaban here.
Northern Electricity Supply Company (NESCO) Limited signed the agreement with JVC of Shenzhen Star Instrument Co. Ltd and Oculin Tech BD. Ltd for smart pre-payment metering project.
NESCO company secretary Syed Abu Taher and president of Shenzhen Star Instrument Lou Chun-Dane and Sadab Sajjad of Oculin Tech BD signed the deal on behalf of their respective sides.
The main purpose of this project is to increase transparency of the NESCO, online real-time data access, versatile payment and collection and payment of electricity bills from any anywhere, and bring non-technical loss to zero percent, the project details said.
It said the state-owned company NESCO is responsible to distribute pre-payment meters in Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions along with important and commercial areas.
In the first phase of the project nine districts were included. The contract value of the project has been estimated at Taka. 414,82,62,000.
Addressing the signing ceremony, Chowdhury said services to people must be ensured.
Among others, Secretary of Power Division Dr Sultan Ahmed, Chairman of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) Sayeed Ahmed and NESCO Managing Director Zakiul Islam spoke on the occasion.
Dr Sultan Ahmed said, “This smart pre-payment meter will play an important role in making the customers affordable. The initiative is a significant milestone in supplying quality electricity to all.”
Under the contract, NESCO will provide smart pre-payment meters to 500,000 subscribers in the country’s northwest region within the next year. To this end, the NESCO signed the agreement with Chinese company Shenzhen Star Instrument and Oculin Tech BD.
In the first phase, the smart pre-payment meters will be installed in nine districts, of which Rajshahi-1, Rajshahi-4, Chapainawabganj-1, Chapainawabganj-2, Natore, Pabna-1, Pabna-2, Bogura-1, Bogura-2, Dinajpur-1, Dinajpur, Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Saidpur and Nilphamari.
In addition to the installation of smart pre-payment meters, under the project, advanced metering infrastructure (AME) system will be implemented. A total of 1,31,353 single phase meters, 8,095 3-phase meters and 839 DCU meters will be installed in the project area.
