Srinagar, June 25: The Power Development Department will soon be moving its entire process of inspections and certifications online. This was revealed by Principal Secretary, Power Development Department, Rohit Kansal at a meeting today.
Kansal, according to an official handout, was chairing a meeting to review the progress of various IT projects being carried out for augmentation of power sector and strengthening IT and Communication Divisions of J&K PDD here at the Civil Secretariat.
The meeting was attended by Managing Director Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL), Basharat Qayoom; Secretary Technical (PDD), Bashir Ahmad Dar; Director Finance (PDD), M Sultan Malik; Chief Engineer Distribution, Ajaz Ahmad; Chief Engineer Projects, Javid Ahmad and Executive Engineer IT Division (PDD), Surjeel Ghani.
The meeting was informed that private as well as government consumers would now be able to apply online for inspections and the requisite payments and delivery of inspection certificates would also be online.
The website was already being tested by the Inspections wing in Jammu and the same would be launched soon formally, the meeting was informed.
The meeting also discussed various aspects and issues related to implementation of Information Technology in JKPDD, status and progress achieved for various ongoing projects such as SCADA/DMS, RT-DAS under various centrally sponsored schemes such as RAPDRP and smart metering, besides customer care and call centre.
The Principal Secretary also made a special mention of the measures required to enhance ease of doing business and said that important customer centric matters such as new connections, change in names, bill payment and similar other activities should move entirely online.
The Principal Secretary urged the engineers to speed up the execution of projects. He reminded them of upcoming deadlines of projects like SCADA and RTDAS and urged them to pull up the vendors and contractors to deliver the projects as per the deadlines allotted. He made a special reference to the call centre and stressed upon the XEN IT to ensure prompt disposal of the public complaints being reported through the call centre.
While speaking on the occasion, the Principal Secretary observed that with the increasing smartness of various power scheme equipments, the challenges on the cyber security front are also increasing and securing power related equipments and systems from threat of cyber attack is now an important task.
He said that it is now extremely important for all utilities as well as Transcos and Gencos to be on constant alert to any cyber threats.
He said that it is desirable to plug in with suitable countermeasures to improve and increase the security of the power systems and equipment.
He also called upon the concerned officers to go for a safety audit of websites keeping in mind their vulnerability to online security threats.