ITANAGAR, Jul 22: Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein through a videoconferencing on Wednesday soft launched the online bill payment service for postpaid electricity consumers of the state which is expected to relieve them from standing in long queues or travel to electrical department offices to pay bills.

While expressing satisfaction over the initiative of the state’s Department of Power, Mein said the new system will be a boon for the state’s postpaid electricity consumers particularly during the current Covid-19 times as there will be no need now to be physically present at the electricity department cash counters for bill payment. He congratulated the officers and officials of the departments of Power and Planning & Investment and all those involved for their tireless efforts in timely activation of the online bill payment system despite the lockdown. 

Postpaid consumers can now pay their bills from the comfort of their homes by logging in to the department's web portal www.arpdop.gov.in or by the Bharat Bill Pay Ecosystem through various payment apps such as PayTM, PhonePe, BHIM, PayZapp, MobiKwik etc. and net banking facilities offered by various banks. The new online bill payment system will initially cover the consumers from 6 R-APDRP (Restructure–Accelerated Power Development Reform Programme) towns namely, Itanagar, Naharlagun, Pasighat, Roing, Tezu and Namsai. Very soon, it will be activated in the remaining 3 R-APDRP towns namely Ziro, Daporijo and Aalo. The DCM further informed that 16 more towns under IPDS (Integrated Power development Scheme) Phase-II will be brought under the online payment platform after implementation of Phase-II of the IPDS programme.

“Power Department will also be launching the prepaid online payment service for Itanagar and Naharlagun within a few days, the activation work of which is in its final stage,” Mein added. For the convenience of consumers, the department is also initiating a Customer Care Centre, the first of its kind in the state wherein the consumers will be able to lodge their power supply related complaints or enquire about issues related to electricity bills by dialling the 4-digit Pan-India Electricity Complaints Helpline Number-1912, which will be effective from Wednesday onwards for 12 hours initially and will be made functional 24x7 from a later date soon. This is expected to benefit the consumers living in far-flung areas of the state.

Mein expressed gratitude to the implementing agencies namely Tata Consultancy Services (R-APDRP), National Payments Corporation of India (Bharat Bill Payment System), PayU (online payment) and Secure Meters, the prepaid implementing agency for their technical support. Launching the online bill payment service, the DCM successfully made the first online payment of his electricity bill for his residence in Namsai.

Among others, Commissioner Planning & Investment P S Lokhande, Secretary (Planning & Investment) Himanshu Gupta, Chief Engineers, Superintending Engineers and Executive Engineers of the Power Department also attended the programme via videoconferencing.  DCM Media Cell