Agartala, February 23 (TIWN): First phase of Pilot Project of Smart Meter System is likely to be implemented within next six months covering a total of 44000 houses under Agartala power division- 1, said Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL) Shyamal Kumar Roy over telephone today. “The Central Government has approved an estimated cost of Rs. 24 crore for the implementation of Pilot Project but the project details indicates that the total cost will be increased”, said Roy. The entire project will be funded from Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) introduced by the Central Government, he said. CMD further said that to implement the project, two companies- Wipro and Tata Consultancy had applied for the tender while Wipro has been selected for implementing the project.“Successfully implementation of smart meters in every house would significantly reduce power theft as the concerned department would be able to directly control the entire system from power house by utilizing DCU meter, through satellite”, said CMD.

Explaining the advantage of Smart Meters, the CMD said that the power consumers would be able to use it same as mobile prepaid services adding that the consumers can halt using power as per the requirement.

“After the successfully implementation of pilot project, smart meter system will be introduced in every district of Tripura phase by phase along with the other parts of the country. The implementation of pilot project is likely to be stared within next six months while the entire project is expected to be completed in two years”, added Roy.