Pay up or face cut, Power Grid tells BSES firms

NEW DELHI: Areas across the city may face long outages from Saturday as state-run Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd has threatened to snap power supply to two BSES discoms if they fail to pay dues of around Rs 220 crore. In separate notices, PGCIL has asked BSES Yamuna Power Ltd and BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd to pay the dues or face cut in power supply from March 28.
The PGCIL had served the notices to the two discoms three days ago. When asked, the BSES said, both the discoms were in "active talks" with banks and PGCIL to resolve the issue at the "earliest".
"Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission has admitted in its affidavit in the Supreme Court that around Rs 10,000 crore is owed to BSES discoms. Once this amount is cleared, dues to PGCIL and other power utilities will be paid immediately," BSES said. All major power transmission lines in Delhi are maintained by the PGCIL and the discoms have to pay to it.
BSES Rajdhani distributes power to 1.85 million in south and west Delhi, including Alaknanda, Vasant Kunj, Saket, Nehru Place, Nizamuddin, Sarita Vihar, Hauz Khas, RK Puram, Janakpuri, Punjabi Bagh, Tagore Garden, Vikas Puri, Palam and Dwarka. BSES Yamuna has 1.35 million customers in central and east Delhi, including Chandni Chowk, Daryaganj, Paharganj, Shankar Road, Patel Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Mayur Vihar and Yamuna Vihar.