Kumar Rajiv Nayan
Ara : South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (SBPDCL) will install two Power Sub-Stations (PSS) at Gangi and Dharahra localities under Town Police Stations, Ara, in Bhojpur district at an estimated cost of Rs 40 crore under the Integrated Power Distribution Scheme (IPDS) with the help of the central and state Government. The DCLR, Ara, Buddh Prakash and Circle Officer incharge, Ara Sadar, Vakil Prakash visited the sites on December 6. The PSSs are being installed to implement CM Nitish Kumar’ resolve to supply uninterrupted power to district headquarters.
After visiting the sites, the two officials said that to streamline the power supply at Ara, the SBPDCL is installing PSSs at Ara and the wowork on the project is likely to start this month and likely to be completed in two year and the fund for the purpose has already been allotted. They said that one distribution transformers of 5MW each will be installed at both the PSSs sites. At present Ara has three PSSs; Japani Power Sub-station with 30 MW capacity, Godana Road Power Sub-station of 30 MW and Zero Mile Power Sub-station of 20 MW capacity. Altogether 80 MW of power is supplied to the town through 400 distribution transformers while it needs 100 MW.
With the installation of these two PSSs, 16 MW additional power will be supplied and Ara town will not have any scarcity of power. As per government record, Ara has 50,000 legal connections and revenue of Rs 7 crore is generated per month. Sources in the department said that illegal connections are many more than the legal. Sanjay Kumar, Executive Engineer of the Project, said that Ara town is facing frequent breakdown problem these days due to heavy load. He said these two PSSs will supply 8 MW each.