Only 54 societies give consent for multi-point meters in Greater Noida

GREATER NOIDA: With just 54 out of 134 highrise apartment complexes in Greater Noida opting for multi-point meter connections so far, it seems to be an uphill task for Noida Power Company Limited (NPCL), the discom that supplies electricity to the city, to convince the residents of its benefits.

In Shivalik Homes near Surajpur, for instance, NPCL organised an awareness camp for multi-point meter connections in the society earlier this week.

However, only 100 residents opted for the scheme of a total of 400. Though NPCL is confident of getting the necessary consent of 50% of the flat owners in the coming days for conversion to multi-point connections, the society is still under the control of the builder, leading to reservations from residents.

According to the residents, the multi-point meter option (provided by NPCL) will club the power backup and maintenance charges in one part (to be under the builder’s control) and the power connection directly from the discom (in another part). This, according to them, is not viable as the developer will continue to regulate power backup through the prepaid meter option. Also, the residents do not want to pay extra for the multi-point meter (in place of the current prepaid meter provided by the builder) as they have already invested in a meter at the time of the flat’s purchase.

Omdatt Sharma, a resident, said, “We have been told that post-paid or prepaid meters will be selected on the basis of the majority of applications. Nearly 100 residents have applied for the post-paid option and already deposited the application forms for multi-point connection, asking for only one meter cost. But NPCL wants to install prepaid dual meters, which leave room for builder control in the power backup option which will be clubbed with the maintenance charge. This is not acceptable and defeats the purpose of sourcing a direct connection with the discom.”

According to Sharma, NPCL is asking the residents to pay the maximum connection charges of Rs 15,000, whereas the work should be done at a minimum cost. “Since we have already paid for the meters and connection charges when we had purchased the flat, we are not willing to bear any additional cost for the multi-point connection. The discom has to just replace the existing meter with a multi-point one as wires and connections are all in place.”

NPCL, on the other hand, claims that many of these apartment complexes have incomplete and electrical infrastructure. “This becomes the biggest challenge for conversion,” said Sarnath Ganguly, vice-president (operations), NPCL. “In fact, there are many projects that are incomplete and are in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), where interim resolution professionals have been appointed to complete the pending works of the societies. Occupancy, project completion and handover to AOA or no AOA are some of the major issues for the multi-point meter conversion in such societies.”

Shivalik Homes, too, does not have the occupancy certificate as it is pending from the builder’s end to procure from the Greater Noida Authority.

Meanwhile, some of the societies that have so far successfully converted to multi-point meter connections in Greater Noida include Purvanchal Royal City, Unitech Horizon, JMI Professional Employees Welfare Society and Hindustan Petroleum Cooperative Housing Society.