The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has distributed electricity meters to backward and economically disadvantaged households free of cost.

The Authority has distributed free electricity meters to the poor households living in the areas under the Gaushala of Mahottari and Dhanushadham Distribution Centre of Dhanusha in Madhesh Province, according to a press statement of NEA.

The Authority has been providing free meters and connecting electricity to the poor through its distribution centres across the country.

The deprived class will get a single-phase electric meter, miniature circuit box (MCB) with 5-30 ampere capacity as per the Authority standards free of cost.

The Authority does not charge service fees for meter connection. The installation of a new meter, including service charges, MCB and wire will cost Rs. 12,000 to 15,000 per household. The cost of an electric meter is Rs. 1,935.

Managing Director of NEA Kul Man Ghising distributed free meters to the poor families living in the municipalities under Gaushala of Mahottari and Dhanushadham Distribution Centre of Dhanusha.

Free meters have been distributed to 68 under Gaushala of Mahottari and 162 poor households under Dhanushadham distribution centres of NEA.

Ghising said that the journey of the last mile of electrification was going on to provide electricity to the citizens who are currently living in such places by searching for areas that do not have electricity.

"We have passed the stage of ending the load-shedding of the places that have been electrified, and now we are nearing the end of the stage of supplying electricity to the places with 24-hour load-shedding, now about 96 per cent of the electrification has been completed,” he said.

"Giving priority to supplying electricity to the houses that are always in load-shedding without electricity, and the NEA is moving in the last mile journey to electrify these people within two years," he said.

At the same time, the NEA is expanding and strengthening the infrastructure for transmission and distribution to make the electricity supply sufficient, reliable and of high quality, Ghising said.

"Free meters have been provided to the poor so that no citizen should be deprived of electricity. Due to lack of money, the poor have been using electricity by hooking up.

After distribution of free meters, theft will be controlled and electricity leakage will decrease and electrical accidents caused by unauthorised use will be reduced," he said.

Stating that Madhes is going to be announced as a fully electrified province soon, he urged them to report immediately if there was a place without electricity and help in controlling the leakage.

In Madhes Province, electricity leakage towards distribution is 13.27 per cent by mid-May this year.

He said, "We have to increase the production and productivity through irrigation by expanding the electricity to the fields, for this, we have advanced the electrification of irrigation in collaboration with local levels."

Munindra Thakur, chief of Madhes Province Regional Office, Janakpur, of NEA said that there is a lot of demand for electrification of irrigation in the Terai-Madhes region.

For any consumer up to 100 KVA and up to 200 KVA, milk moisture centre, cold storage, community drinking water, community irrigation has been arranged to supply electricity from the Authority's transformer.

Out of 1,044,000 customers of the Authority in eight districts of Madhes Province, the number of household customers is 934,000.

Out of this, the number of customers who pay R. 30 monthly and get 20 units of electricity for free by keeping a single-phase meter of 5 amperes at home is 200,000.