AGARTALA, Jan 2 (TIWN): Tripura Power dept. to launch ‘Ujala & Pawan’ scheme under Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) which had signed MoU with Govt of India in an attempt to convert the whole India with power efficiency.

In this regard a programme was held at Pragna Bhawan on Monday where Urban Development Minister Manik Dey shared dais with other state representatives of Ujala and Pawan Schem. The main thing which attracted Tripura Govt about Ujala and Pavan scheme under govt of India, was that the state govt initially do not have to invest anything and it will be fully cost-free.

Under the project instead of CFL bulbs, now the state will get LED bulbs which will more lessen the price with 3 years of warranty. In this regard the Govt is to sign MoU with Ujala  company to bring down the price. The investment which will be done by the company will be recovered later by the state govt after the work is done. “In that time the expense will be less and Tripura Govt will be able to pay the whole bill”, the Minister said.

However, it may burden the state with more expenses as already Tripura Govt under huge debts of unpaid bills, which compelled the govt to take loan of Rs. 250 crores from UBI with 9.90 % interest. This was announced during the programme by the power Minister himself.

However the representative of Ujala said that in whole India the failure rate is 1 – 2 %. But the company may not know Tripura has been announced as the most lowest GDP growers in whole India.

Power Minister however blames the hook line users, misuse of lights are responsible for heavy losses. “Lack of rain has disrupted the power generation of Tripura”, claimed the Minister.

Ujala, an acronym for Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All, is a scheme for registered domestic electricity consumers to be implemented by Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department in collaboration with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL).  This scheme is introduced to benefit the consumers and save their day to day energy bill. Under this scheme consumer can buy 5 LED bulbs at the rate of Rs 20 each on production of photostat copy of photo identity card and latest electricity bill. In case of purchase of more than five bulbs, consumers need to pay Rs 95 per bulb.

However, in Agartala, EESL plans to distribute over 20 lakh LED bulbs, five lakh tube lights and 50,000 fans. By distributing 2lakh LED bulbs, the state would save annual energy savings of 25 crore MWh. It is estimated that the annual savings in consumer bills would be more than Rs.100crores with these bulbs. The annual energy saved by replacing merely 20lakh inefficient bulbs with LED bulbs can help provide electricity to over 48,000 households for an entire year. The change to LED bulbs will also result in reduction of CO2 emission by two lakh tones every  year.

But under CPI-M regime very few companies get ready to invest here and now the new experiment may result more horrifying, TIWN reported.