MSEDCL has decided to appoint a distribution franchisee for Mahal, Gandhibagh and Civil Lines division
appointed Crompton Greaves as the franchisee for the three divisions but the company refused
to take over as it had reckoned it would incur losses.
Congress Nagar division will continue to be directly under MSEDCL as the distribution company's policy is to franchise out only urban divisions with high distribution and collection losses. After Nagpur's process is successfully completed, it plans to franchise out divisions in Aurangabad, Kalyan, Jalgaon, etc.
Sale of tender forms will begin from December 15 and continue till January 4. The interested bidder can obtain the form by sending a demand draft of Rs 2 lakh to MSEDCL head office. The pre-bid conference will be held on January 13. The last date of submission of bids is January 28. The technical and financial bids will be opened on January 28.
MSEDCL's decision to franchise out Gandhibagh, Civil Lines and Mahal divisions had met with lot of opposition last time. Several public interest litigations (PILs) were filed in Nagpur high court and power staffers had threatened to strike work. Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) had passed a resolution in the House against the decision. Many consumer organisations had claimed that appointment of a franchisee was not in favour of consumers. In view of these controversies TOI talked to MSEDCL managing director Ajoy Mehta to seek his views on the contentious issues. The excerpts:
Q: Many consumers fear that appointment of franchisee is not in their interest?
A: Their fear is totally baseless. Honest consumers have nothing to fear from the franchisee. Only those people who use hooks to illegally draw power or tamper their meters will be adversely affected. In fact, honest consumers would immensely benefit from appoint of distribution franchisee. The reliability charge for zero load shedding (ZLS) in Nagpur is high because the three divisions have quite high distribution losses. The franchisee will bring down the losses quickly and then consumers of Nagpur will be able to enjoy ZLS by paying a far lower surcharge.
Q: What will be the tariff when the private franchisee takes over?
A: The power tariff will not change at all. The franchisee will charge the same power tariff as being charged by MSEDCL. Franchisee is sort of agent of MSEDCL and hence the tariff will be as determined by MERC.
Q: How will you ensure that interests of consumers are protected?
A: A consumer grievance redressal mechanism will be in place after the franchisee takes over and its structure will be same as in MSEDCL areas. There will be internal grievance redressal forums (IGRFs) and consumer grievance redressal forums (CGRFs). The consumer can approach the MERC or its ombudsman if he has a grievance. Moreover, consumers can also approach MSEDCL if they feel that franchisee is not giving them proper service.
Q: You had appointed a franchisee last year. However, things went wrong and Crompton Greaves did not take over. How will you ensure that same does not happen this time?
A: Things did not go wrong last time. We were just unlucky. Firstly, there was a lot of litigation that delayed the franchising process. Then Crompton Greaves refused to take over after being awarded the contract. We can hardly do anything if the successful bidder backtracks.