Missing the January deadline that the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) had set for itself to launch the SMS bill-reminder facility for customers, the Corporation remains hopeful of launching it “very soon”.
Tangedco had planned to inaugurate the SMS facility in mid-January, but postponed it because of a delay in collecting contact numbers from customers.
Local officials of Tangedco attributed the poor data collection to the fact that customers were not willing to share their contact numbers, citing loss of privacy.
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A local official said that while the system for collecting contact numbers from new applicants has been streamlined, the majority of customers, living in rented premises, were unwilling to share their contact numbers.
A senior official of Tangedco said that work on collecting the contact numbers of domestic consumers was almost over.
He said that the department was waiting for the election model code of conduct to be withdrawn for kick-starting the project.
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The SMS facility will provide customers, through a text message, the date of meter reading, units consumed, amount payable and the due date for payment, among other details. Also a reminder SMS will be sent three days before the last date of payment so that customers can avoid paying penalties.
A senior official said that Unicel, a company based in Bangalore, which was awarded the contract for the project, had quoted 11 paise per SMS. “We are hopeful that the cost per SMS will come down to 5 paise, if TRAI permits bulk texting,” he said.
The total consumer base of Tangedco was 2.44 crore as of December 2013.