Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) is spending Rs 1,098 crore on new substations for improving the power supply situation.
The state power utility is setting up 522 new substation of 33/11 kilovolt (Kv) all over UP to prevent overloading and subsequent tripping.
UPPCL Chairman and Managing Director Navneet Sehgal today reviewed the progress of the project and directed officials to speed up the work.
While, a majority of the substations were approved last year, the work on 132 substations has started in this financial year.
The substations of 33/11 Kv are low capacity units primarily catering to households and markets. However, these substations are vulnerable to frequent tripping due to overloading, especially in summers, and resulting in long duration of breakdown in power supply.
The new substations are being set up in Saharanpur, Meerut, Moradabad, Aligarh, Agra, Kanpur, Jhansi, Chitrakoot, Bareilly, Lucknow, Faizabad, Devipatan, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Mirzapur, Varanasi and Allahabad divisions.
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Meanwhile, All India Power Engineers Federation has said the central and state governments should appoint trained engineers on all the key posts, including principal secretary, of all engineering departments.
The Federation has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UP Chief Minister Mayawati to make an announcement in this regard on the occasion of Engineers’ Day that falls on September 15, which is the birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya.
The Federation said if India were to grow by 10 per cent and compete with China, all the development works need to be put under the management of engineers. Besides, the country needs to take proactive steps to check the flight of good engineers from India.
The main reason for underachievement of the targets of all the 11 Five Year Plans is the non-inclusion of engineers in core management of development projects, Federation Secretary General Shailendra Dubey said.