Cabinet okays BSEB unbundling into 5 companies

The Nitish Kumar government has given its nod to unbundle the Bihar State Electricity Board into five separate entities. The state cabinet on 02-08-2011 okayed a proposal for the division of Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) into five separate companies. Bihar State Electricity Company ( BSEC)) will be the holding company and other four companies will be known as Bihar State Electricity Production Company, Bihar State Electric Transmission Company, South Bihar Electricity Supply Company and North Bihar Electricity Supply Company. Earlier, there was plan to divide the board into eight companies.

However; the state government will work as a guarantor and ensure that the services of BSEB employees are not affected. Service conditions of the employees will remain unchanged, said cabinet secretary Ravikant while briefing newsmen after the cabinet meeting.

"The services of BSEB officers and employees will continue in the new companies and there will be no dilution in their service conditions," official sources said.

Sunil Wadhwa, MD of North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL), a joint venture between Tata Power and Government of Delhi for power distribution, gave some tips to Bihar for the BSEB unbundling, during his visit to Patna last week. He said that Bihar's situation was similar to that of Delhi at the time of unbundling of Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) in 2002. He also made a power-point presentation here before energy experts and government officials.

Talking to media, Wadhwa stressed the need for robust energy accounting and auditing practices. He said a large number of unmetered consumers, old and worn-out distribution network, high transformer failure rate and cumulative losses to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore at the end of FY10 have made the situation bad in Bihar.