Rajasthan State PCS

• 14 Apr 2023

Ajmer Discom Joined the Leading Discoms of the Country

Why in News?

On 12 April 2023, Ajmer Discom jumped 8 places to the 19th position in the 11th Power Utilities Integrated Rating and Ranking for the financial year 2022, released by the Department of Energy, Government of India.

Key Points

• The name of Ajmer Discom has been included in the country's leading discoms only because of the campaign against electricity theft by Ajmer Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited of Rajasthan and 100% revenue recovery.
• Earlier, Ajmer Discom was at 27th position, which has jumped 8 places to be at 19th position. Ajmer Discom has been leading among all the 3 Discoms of the state. In this ranking, Jaipur Discom has got 29th position and Jodhpur Discom has got 39th position.
• Ajmer Discom has improved its annual score from 21.5 to 62.1. Because of this, Ajmer Discom has also benefited from grading. The earlier grading of Ajmer Discom was 'C', which has now improved to 'B'.
• Significantly, on the basis of reduction in wastage and revenue reforms, the name of Ajmer Discom has now been included in the top discoms of the country. By promoting online payment, Ajmer Discom established new dimensions for electricity distribution companies by collecting almost 101 percent revenue. Along with this, by taking action against many of his innovations and power thieves, the wastage of electricity has been limited to 10.40 percent.
• Discom's loss in the year 2018-19 was Rs 2793.83 crore. The team of Ajmer Discom has earned a profit of more than Rs 550 crore in the fiscal year 2021-22.
• And in the year 2018-19, the discom's wastage was 17.81 percent. Wastage was limited to only 10.40 percent by running a continuous campaign against power thieves.
• To reduce the wastage, many innovations were done by Ajmer Discom which proved to be successful indisputably. These mainly include installation of 4/6 meter boxes in power theft prone areas, installation of mini meter labs in all subdivisions, service line visible campaign, coordinate capturing, Adarsh GSS campaign, Adarsh feeder campaign, confiscation of illegal transformers, covering uncovered meter, including transformer repair lab in each sub-division is the main thing.

Rajasthan's 1st Vande Bharat Train

Why in News?

On 12 April 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi (via video conferencing), Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Governor Kalraj Mishra inaugurated the state's first Vande Bharat Train at Jaipur Railway Station and flagged off the train.

Key Points

• The first train of Vande Bharat Express for Rajasthan will run between Jaipur to Delhi Cantt Railway Station. The regular service of this train will commence from 13th April, 2023 and will run between Ajmer and Delhi Cantt with stoppages at Jaipur, Alwar and Gurgaon.
• The new Vande Bharat Express will cover the distance between Delhi Cantt and Ajmer in 5 hrs 15 mins. The current fastest train on this route is Shatabdi Express with a travel time of 6 hrs 15 mins from Delhi Cantt to Ajmer. Thus, the new Vande Bharat Express will take 60 minutes less time than the existing fastest train running on this route.
• The Ajmer-Delhi Cantt Vande Bharat Express will be the world's first semi-high speed passenger train on high rise overhead electric (OHE) territory. This train will improve the rail connectivity of major tourist places of Rajasthan including Pushkar, Ajmer Sharif Dargah. The increased rail-connectivity will also give a boost to the socio-economic development in the region.
• This is Rajasthan's first semi high speed train, which will reduce the travel time between Jaipur and Delhi. On this occasion, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot urged the Railway Minister to connect the headquarters of Banswara, Tonk, Karauli etc. with railway facilities.
• The Chief Minister said that an MoU was signed between the Rajasthan government and the Railway Board for rail service between Dungarpur-Banswara-Ratlam. The foundation stone of the railway line was also laid in Banswara. For the first time, Rs 1250 crore was given by any state government including land for a major rail project. But this work of public interest did not progress further. He urged to give priority to this project.
• The Chief Minister said that in view of the importance of international border and national security, there is a need to construct a new rail line to connect Jaisalmer-Barmer with Mundra and Kandla ports. This new rail line will prove to be very beneficial for the work of the ongoing refinery in Barmer and the development of the western region as per the MoU signed by HPCL, a Central Government undertaking and the State Government.