KATHMANDU, June 12: The government has decided that District Administration Offices (DAOs) will work in close coordination with branch offices of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to curb electricity theft.
The collaboration was announced after a meeting between Minister for Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa and Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Barshaman Pun on Wednesday.
Joint squads of DAOs and NEA branch offices will carry out monitoring in areas where electricity theft is high. These squads have been given the target of lowering energy loss to 20.06 percent by mid-July or the end of current fiscal year, compared to 22.9 percent in the last fiscal year.
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According to data compiled by NEA, loss for the current fiscal year, as at May end, stands at Rs 10 billion.
A year earlier, NEA announced an ambitious plan to lower all kind of losses to 15 percent within three years.
During the meeting, Minister Pun also requested the home ministry to provide security at construction sites of hydropower plants when needed. Responding to Pun, home minister Thapa assured that the home ministry will swing into action in case any problem arise in construction site of hydropower plants.
NEA's Managing Director Kulman Ghising and Inspector General of Nepal Police, Sarbendra Khanal, among others, were also present in the meeting held at the Ministry of Home Affairs.
NEA is also strengthening supply system by strengthening transmission lines and installing new transformers to lower technical losses, according to officials of the power utility.
