Though Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has been plagued by reports of its equipment posing danger to its consumers, only emergency maintenance was being undertaken. In fact, Bescom officials have earlier admitted that less than one per cent of its budget is spent on equipment maintenance. And, ‘maintenance work’ generally meant pruning of tree branches and such other work.
Now, the power utility is looking at getting assistance from a third party. Bescom has called for tenders for undertaking ‘preventive maintenance’.
Bescom Managing Director Pankaj Kumar Pandey told The Hindu that the preventive maintenance work, once entrusted to an agency, will be implemented in areas coming under Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and surrounding urban areas.
The tender would be granted to an agency by May-end, and the contract will be on the incentive-penalty basis, Mr. Pandey said.
Work on contract“The third party will be entrusted with the task of ensuring that all equipment is in good shape in the first six months of the contract. All repairs and maintenance of oil level in electricity transformers will be done by them. After this, we will see if we can entrust the task of regular maintenance of all Bescom equipment to them,” Mr. Pandey said.
Soon after the maintenance work is undertaken, a board will be put up on the transformer with information such as the date on which it was done and the date on which the next maintenance work is due.
Apart from this, the agency will also undertake maintenance of high-tension lines and ring main units as well.
New helpline numberMr. Pankaj Kumar Pandey said that soon the power utility’s new helpline number 1912 will become functional. He said they had requested the government to approve an easy-to-remember helpline number instead of 22873333, so the four-digit number has been given.
