Move to make bill payments easier

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Consumers should be able to pay their bills at any of the 64 KSEB electrical section offices in the district by April-May this year. The state-run power utility began the trials of the project at the Puthenchantha electrical section in February. Soon, in the second phase, the facility will be tried out at the Vellayambalam electrical section office also and subsequently at offices across the district, IT officials of the KSEB said.  ‘’There’s been a lot of demand for this facility even from Keralites who are working abroad. They e-mail us saying it would be of much help to their aged parents who live alone,’’ IT head, KSEB, Angus Sudley Cardoza, said.At present, consumers can pay the bi-monthly electricity bill at the electrical section office in their area only. KSEB is using ‘OrumaNet’, a modified version of its acclaimed Oruma software, for the project, he said. The utility had initially planned to roll out the facility by including it in the ‘anywhere payment facility’ in the Centrally-funded Restructured-Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) scheme. But with the R-APDRP programme getting delayed, KSEB had decided to launch the project on its own.KSEB is taking great pains to ensure that the anywhere payment facility is free of flaws once it is rolled out. It was painstakingly tested at KSEB labs before the real-time testing began at the Puthenchantha section office. ‘’We have to be doubly sure before launching the facility,’’ Cardoza said. The facility will be extended to other districts depending on its success in Thiruvananthapuram.