Telangana: Electric equipment shortage in discoms worries contractors, consumers

Sources say contractors attached to Discoms are not able to execute the works on time due to unavailability of critical equipment

Hyderabad: While the problem of delay in getting new connections or taking additional lines in existing industrial units has been a issue in various circles of the State-run power distribution companies (Discoms), sources say that material shortage too has led to applications piling up for a long time now.

Sources say private electrical contractors attached to the Discoms are not able to execute the works on time due to unavailability of critical equipment and components. It is learnt that consumers are forced to wait for days and months after paying demand draft (DD).

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The consumer applies for various equipment and materials at the stage of construction itself and the Discoms engineers visit the field level and provide the estimates for necessary electrical poles, conductors, insulators, electric switches, meters and other necessary materials. After preparing estimates, the consumer makes payments to Discoms in the form of DD.

Although all the electrical equipment is available in the market, as per norms, the consumer has to purchase them from the Discom stores. The electrical equipment is to be distributed to the applicants (based on serial numbers) according to the circles/divisions.

The problem being faced by the consumers is that these stores are taking a lot of time to provide equipment, especially the crucial one. The private electrical contractors are complaining that whenever they visit the Discom stores, they are told that the particular equipment or switches are not available and are asked to wait for sometime leading to delay in executing works.

Sources say once the DD was submitted by the consumer, the material had to be delivered within a week or ten days, but officials working in the procurement and material supply department were colluding with engineers and deliberately creating artificial shortages for personal gains.

The delay was creating problems for the contractors as the consumers kept on exerting pressure on them to finish the work at the earliest. The electrical works involving transformers are getting delayed a lot as the supply of transformers takes quite a long time. In many cases, the contractors were purchasing certain equipment from the market to complete the work on time.

“Efficient supply management is at the core of successful electrical contracting. If you cannot get the parts and materials you need when you need them, you will struggle to get jobs done on time and within budget. The delay was also affecting our reputation in the market, “an electrical contractor said.

Meanwhile, the power officials claim that there was no shortage of materials in the stores and that the private contractors were unnecessarily making hue and cry. It is learnt that the field staff for some financial benefit were creating artificial shortage and trying to exploit the consumers. They are cashing in on the gap between the supply and demand of electrical equipment, sources said.