Soon, SMS alerts for electricity bills in TN

The reminder will come three days before last date

The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) will soon launch an SMS facility to remind consumers about electricity bill details and payment from January 2014.

Talking about the features of the facility, which will be launched mid-January, a Tangedco official said once the assessors upload the meter reading in the servers, an SMS would be automatically sent to consumers.

The SMS would contain the service connection number, amount to be paid and due date of payment.

For those consumers who have not paid the electricity bill, a reminder SMS would be sent three days before the last date of payment to avoid penalty.

Tangedco issued a circular to all the section offices in November directing local officials to expedite collection of mobile numbers and create awareness of the facility.

The circular also instructed various local offices to maintain a register for registering mobile numbers of consumers.

But consumers charged that the register was not available in many local offices.

A Tangedco official in north Chennai said in a situation where there was a shortage of assessors and work load heavy, it would be helpful if customers who want to avail themselves of the service volunteer to register their mobile numbers at the local section offices.