AGARTALA: The Left Front government on Saturday announced a move to install smart meters across the state to ensure full and timely power bill collection. Power minister Manik Dey said in the first phase at least 45,200 conventional metres serving around 1.5 lakh customers will be replaced with smart metres in the capital city by the next two months. So far, over 8000 have already been installed, he added."The smart meter will ensure auto power cut to the individual household unless bill is paid on time and immediately after payment power service will be restored automatically, which would not require human intervention in the process," Dey stated.He said the state has already achieved almost 80% on-time billing and bill collection, but the remaining 20% cases where the bill is collected later directly increases the liability on Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd The corporation being a distribution company, has to pay the power generation companies every month, Dey explained.The government stressed on the need of on-time bill collection given the improvement in the situation of loss of power during transmission and distribution over the years. World Bank has sanctioned a project of Rs 1300 crore for further improvement of the power distribution network in the state. Work has been started for Rs 1087 crore.The state government has sanctioned a further Rs 72 crore for installing underground cable transmission lines in the city and a company has been appointed for preparation of a Detail Project Report (DPR). The Centre has allocated Rs 73 crore under Integrated Power Development Scheme for urban areas and Rs 74.12 crore for rural areas.In 2016-17, 1542 habitations were fully covered with power supply in the state, added Dey.

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