Bugs in ECS bother Bescom

Bangalore: Faced with issues in its electronic clearance service, Bescom is being forced to issue hand receipts. In the last several days, the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has been facing the ire of consumers for glitches in bills. The fault, it is said, lies in the software meant for electronic clearance service.

Since October, the software has been causing problems and the ‘bug’ has not been fixed till now. Bescom officials blame the software vendor for the problems.

In 2009, Bescom took up the Rs 261.9 crore IT project under the central government’s R-APDRP to use IT for detection of thefts through auditing, reduction of operational losses by proper monitoring of assets and several other IT-centered initiatives.

The IT billing and bill collection system that forms the core of the project was implemented, but it is plagued with issues repeatedly. Senior Bescom officials complained that the quality of employees deputed by the private vendor to service Bescom is poor.

“As compared to other projects, the quality of employees here is poor. We have had several meetings and there was even talk of terminating their services,” the senior official said. 

Over 75,000 consumers use the electronic clearance service, but with the tech glitch, the Bescom staff has to manually upload the bill payments, “just like in the old days”, an official remarked.

Bescom Managing Director Pankaj Kumar Pandey told Deccan Chronicle that the top management of the private vendor has been contacted and the issue is expected to be resolved soon. “The problem will be fixed in the next two three days. But it will take at least three weeks for the system to stabilise," he said.

But Bescom sources revealed that even experts have not been able to identify the problem and fix it. Pandey said, “We have called in Oracle experts to look into the matter and we will sortthe issue out at the earliest."