Adding to the existing Salem Corporation’s financial woes, the electricity consumption charges for 2016-17 stood at ₹ 39,95,51,000 which is an increase of ₹10 crore when compared to 2015-16.
The Corporation that has four zones covering 60 wards incurs electricity bill through street lights, buildings and drinking water schemes. The total length of the Corporation roads is 848.63 km. of which tar-topped road is 758.85 km., 12.80 km. gravel road, 5.78 km. cement road and 19.20 km. mud road. A total of 32,211 lights were present, including 2,291 lights in offices, for which the civic body incurs the bill.
Officials said that the consumption charges for the year 2016-17 includes, ₹ 11.27 crore for street lights, Corporation buildings and operating motors in over head tanks, ₹5.03 crore for Salem – Mettur (Nangavalli) Water Scheme and ₹ 23.64 crore for operating the Mettur – Salem Dedicated Water Supply Scheme.
Officials said that conversion of street lights into light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs has reduced the power consumption charges in the past two years. But due to installing of more street lights in the expanded areas, the consumption charges had gone up. “A ₹ 24.77-crore project is being implemented by which 19,761 lights were converted as LED bulbs and work is on to convert 10,174 bulbs into LED bulbs to reduce electricity consumption”, they added.
Currently, the Corporation receives 10 million litres per day (MLD) of water through the old scheme and 103 MLD through the dedicated water supply scheme. “Power consumption by operating these two schemes stands at ₹29 crore every year”, they added. Once the Phase II of the water scheme is commissioned and the four treatment plants are functional, the electricity bill would further go up, they added.
