Encouraged by the overwhelming use of Any Time Payment (ATP) machines by the residents of Bangalore Metropolitan Zonal Area for paying their electricity charges, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has decided to go for a major expansion of ATP facility in the City.

According to sources in Bescom, on an average over four lakh people use 50 ATP machines installed at various places in the City per month and the monthly payment made through these machines has been a whopping Rs 70 crore. Another 25 ATP machines are going to be installed at different locations in the City in the next three-four months.

For Bangaloreans, eight different types of facilities - including ATP machines - are available for remitting their electricity bills. An analysis indicates that barring Bescom counters, ATP centres are the most sought after centres for paying the electricity bills by consumers.

There are 166 counters in the metropolitan area and through them around Rs 235 crore payment is being done every month.

BOO system

The ATP machines are being managed on Build-Operate-Own (BOO) system by three agencies - Can Bank Co-operative Service, Digital Age Strategies and SPML - round the clock.

The other facilities available for paying the bills are: BangaloreOne, Easy Bill, SBI & SBM ATMs, ICICI Bank managed outlets, Bill Junctions and Electronic Clearing System (ECS).

There are 17 BangaloreOne centres in the City and around two lakh consumers pay monthly bills worth Rs 22 crore through these centres. The BangaloreOne counters are proposed to be opened in at least 20 more places where BDA kiosks are situated in metropolitan area.

Easy Bill

Around 90,000 customers remit their bills through 292 Easy Bill outlets managed by Hero Honda agency. The monthly collection is around Rs four crore.

The ECS is being used by 60,000 customers and the monthly collection is around Rs 10 crore. Earlier BWSSB counters were also being used for collecting electricity bills. But due to a technical problem, this has been stopped since June 2.

In post-offices too

Bescom will enter into a tie-up with the Postal Department for collection of electricity dues at the post offices situated in the rural areas coming under Bescom area.

According to Bescom sources, already negotiations have been held with the Postal Department in this regard. “The modalities are being worked”, the sources added.

The scheme will be launched on a pilot basis in Kolar and Channapatna divisions of Bescom. Subsequently the scheme would be extended to the entire rural area under Bescom.

At present Grama Vidyuth Pratinidhis (GVPs) are entrusted with the task of distributing electricity bills and collecting electricity charges in the rural areas. “In addition to GVPs, post offices will also be allowed to collect the electricity charges”, the sources added.