LAHORE: The Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) has resumed taking over the distribution control of 66 railway colonies of Pakistan Railways (PR) after the relaxation of the Corona restrictions.

According to the data exclusively available with Business Recorder, out of the 66 distribution networks, 38 are fed by above and 28 by below 100kva generators.

According to the data, the LESCO administration has issued demand notices to the residents of 52 railway colonies, out of which the PR has paid the required amount for 40 colonies. The electrification of 30 colonies was completed by the middle of the current month.

So far as the installation of digital meters is concerned, the LESCO has planned to install 8,353 meters in total, out of which 1,096 have already been installed while remaining 7,262 meters would be in place by the end of the current fiscal year.

The process of taking over the distribution control was started in 2019, which could not sustain the pace due to the outbreak of Corona virus pandemic. Accordingly, the operation remained in doldrums until recently when the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) decided to ease down the restrictions after a drop in cases of Delta variant of COVID-19.

The then Chief Executive LESCO Mujahid Pervaiz Chatta, when contacted, said he had inaugurated the initiative in late 2019 from Waheed Colony of the PR after entering into an agreement with the authorities concerned in the PR. Prior to it, he said, the LESCO was supplying electricity in bulk to the Railways administration while the distribution system of all the railway colonies was under the control of the PR. Also, he added, the PR was collecting monthly bills from their employees on behalf of the LESCO.

Chatta said the PR authorities were of the view that their obsolete internal distribution system was facing huge losses. Therefore, the LESCO should take over the distributive control of all the colonies. Accordingly, he said, the company has replaced the obsolete distribution lines, polls and transformers in 30 railway colonies and the remaining 22 would follow suit before the end of the current fiscal year, subject to the normalcy of situation in the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021