Haryana govt to install 30 lakh smart meters with pre-paid, post-paid facility by 2024

Haryana state government on Saturday announced that it will install 30 lakh smart meters in homes and other installations of electricity consumers in the state by the year 2024. Providing details about the smart power meters state Power Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala said that the meters can be monitored by consumers’ mobile phones, and will be available in both pre-paid and post-paid varieties which can be recharged like mobile phones as and when needed.

According to PTI report, Chautala further said these are hi-tech gadgets, equipped with the latest technology and the control of each metre will remain with the power corporations. He added that these metres cannot be tampered with.

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The power minister further informed that during the first phase, the work of installing 10 lakh smart meters is going on out of which 1.5 lakh of them have already been installed in Gurgaon. Similarly, a target has been set to install 20 lakh smart meters in the second phase, he added.

“Around 10 lakh smart metres will be installed in the state in the first phase, for which the Central Government will give an assistance of Rs 780 crore to Haryana. The state will have to spend the balance Rs 820 crore,” Chautala said.

The minister had also raised the issue of installing smart meters in the state during a video conference with Union Minister of Power R K Singh on Friday. The Union minister of power had praised Haryana for reducing the transmission loss from 30.2 percent to 17.4 percent, according to the state government release.

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COVID-19 situation in Haryana

Haryana reported 545 fresh cases on Saturday pushing the tally in the state to 16,548 coronavirus cases. The state has also reported five more COVID-19 deaths which took the death toll to 260. Three fatalities were reported in Gurgaon and two in Faridabad, a state Health department bulletin said. With this, the number of deaths due to the virus reaches 99 in Gurgaon and 89 in Faridabad.

Currently, there are 4,031 active cases in the state, while 12,257 patients have been discharged after recovery. The state's recovery rate on Saturday was at 74.07 per cent. Among the fresh cases, 180 were in Faridabad, 130 in Gurgaon, 81 in Sonipat, 41 in Bhiwani and 23 were in Karnal.

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(With inputs from PTI) (Image -PTI)