North MCD to charge commercial rent for space occupied by Discom’s transformers
7 Dec 2014 5:02 AM IST
Hitting back at power distributing companies on charging commercial rates of electricity to street lights of the civic bodies, the house meeting of North DMC on Monday is going to make a rule to charge rent on their transformers at commercial rates. The rent would be calculated on commercial rates from the date the Discoms took over electricity distribution in the city from electricity department of the Delhi government (DESU/DVB).
‘The erstwhile electricity department of Delhi government (DESU or DVB) used to provide free electricity and maintenance services to all our street lights so we were not charging rent for our space they were using to install their transformers,” said P K Gupta, commissioner North DMC. “They are purely commercial companies but charging commercial bills on our public services,” he added.
The proposal has already been sanctioned by the standing committee of the Corporation. As per the proposal, the Discoms will have to take license from North DMC for installing transformers in future after paying three months’ fees in advance. “The space occupied by the functioning transformer would be measured in presence of representatives of the concerned and charged as per circle rate of commercial category in the locality,” added Gupta. The license fee shall be increased by 35% every five years and the company would have to pay interest at 18 per cent per annum in case of late payments.
The rule also mandates several guidelines to install transformers. “No transformer would be allowed in the middle of any park but should be installed in a corner. It must be covered properly,” he added.
As per the survey done by North DMC over 41,305 sqm of its land is occupied by various Discoms to install transformers which include mostly parks, schools and corners of the hospitals. If the ruled is implemented, Corporation which pays thousands of crores to Discoms would significantly minimise their expenses on electricity bills.
‘The erstwhile electricity department of Delhi government (DESU or DVB) used to provide free electricity and maintenance services to all our street lights so we were not charging rent for our space they were using to install their transformers,” said P K Gupta, commissioner North DMC. “They are purely commercial companies but charging commercial bills on our public services,” he added.
The proposal has already been sanctioned by the standing committee of the Corporation. As per the proposal, the Discoms will have to take license from North DMC for installing transformers in future after paying three months’ fees in advance. “The space occupied by the functioning transformer would be measured in presence of representatives of the concerned and charged as per circle rate of commercial category in the locality,” added Gupta. The license fee shall be increased by 35% every five years and the company would have to pay interest at 18 per cent per annum in case of late payments.
The rule also mandates several guidelines to install transformers. “No transformer would be allowed in the middle of any park but should be installed in a corner. It must be covered properly,” he added.
As per the survey done by North DMC over 41,305 sqm of its land is occupied by various Discoms to install transformers which include mostly parks, schools and corners of the hospitals. If the ruled is implemented, Corporation which pays thousands of crores to Discoms would significantly minimise their expenses on electricity bills.
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