As bright energy project takes off thousands of LED bulbs for Kohima

DIMAPUR, SEPTEMBER 7: TENS of thousands of low-power consuming LED bulbs are out for villages and wards in Kohima district as the authorities continue their push to make energy use in the capital regions, primary electricity, efficient. The district administration of Kohima convened a meeting with the administrator of Kohima Municipal Council, and leaders and members of the KVC, colonies and wards under the municipality at the DC’s conference hall on September 6 in Kohima town. The deputy commissioner of Kohima, Rovilatuo Mor, presided over the meeting. Welcoming the members present at the event, Rovilatuo Mor said that the meeting was convened to discuss and propagate the ‘Energy Efficient Kohima’ project which was launched recently by the Kohima district administration. The program is collaboration between the district’s administration and the Energy Efficient Service Limited (EESL), a public sector agency of the Government of India under the Ministry of Power. The official pointed out the power shortage in the district: the current transformer capacity is 16-17 MW whereas the present requirement has been assessed to be 25 MW. In winter with ‘all the festive decorations in every individual house,’ he said, the demand raises to 31 MW. Mor said that power supply was less. However, the demand has been increasing which has led to load shedding and power cuts. This has become unavoidable, the deputy commissioner said. Therefore, he said, with the aim to reduce and encourage efficient use of electricity in the district, besides preventing damage to power transformers, LED lighting bulbs would be provided to individual consumers on subsidized rates through village councils and Panchayats in Kohima, he said. The program is under the DISTEC programme. Also, the deputy commissioner said that LED bulbs consume less power which in turn would drastically reduce electricity bills. He said that the first phase of the programme had been implemented. Over 4400 LED bulbs have been provided to some selected villages and welfare homes, he said. Besides, the deputy commissioner added, the second phase of the programme will see 70,000 LED Bulbs for citizens. It will try to cover Kohima village and Kohima town and further spread the implementation to surrounding villages and cover the district, Mor said. The deputy commissioner also said that guidelines have been prepared for use during implementation of the DITEEK programme. He has urged village chairmen and representatives of colonies and wards in Kohima to extend cooperation and take part in the implementation works as responsible individuals in their respective areas. This will ‘bring success to the initiative,’ he said. Mor also said that LED bulbs would be distributed according to the requirement of villages, colonies and wards and priced at ‘company rate.’ The additional expenditures from transportation would be borne by the district administration with an assurance that the goods reach the individual at the same rate. The deputy commissioner also sought an assessment of the requirement for LED bulbs from villages, colonies, and wards from the representatives. This is for ‘distribution modalities,’ he explained. In the meeting, the officials and representatives of villages and colonies spoke about the various aspects of power problems in their area. The issues included payment of electricity bills. The participants also raised issues needing clarification. These were taken care of by EESL officials and the district administration. The meeting also took note of the issue about electricity bill payment. The deputy commissioner has asked the department to ‘work out strategies and come up with practicable solution for the benefit of the power consumers. The administrator of the KMC, Kovi Meyase, also raised some issues for clarification on aspects of program-implementation. He requested all the wards to take part in the new and innovative exercise launched by the district administration. SDO (C) Kethosituo Sekhose also requested the chairmen and representatives of villages and local areas to educate and propagate the main idea of said initiative to the people in their jurisdictions.