Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme Sparks Infrastructure Upgrades in Vidarbha

thenewsdirt
16 hours ago
9 min read

Electricity distribution companies in India have long faced the challenge of modernising a grid with high losses and technical faults.

The Union government launched the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme RDSS to tackle these issues by tying federal funding to concrete reforms.

RDSS provides roughly ₹303758 crore over five years, 2021–22 to 2025–26, to upgrade networks and reduce Aggregate Technical and Commercial losses to about 12–15 percent while closing the gap between the cost of supply and revenue by 2024–25. In Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region, the scheme is already driving major upgrades.

Local officials say hundreds of feeders are being separated and substations enhanced alongside smart metering drives, all aimed at making power supply more reliable and efficient. Stakeholders from farmers to factory managers are watching as RDSS investment reshapes the regional power grid.

Power Sector Reforms under RDSS

The RDSS is a reform-linked results-oriented central scheme for all state owned distribution utilities and power departments. It subsumes earlier programmes like IPDS and DDUGJY, meaning no new projects are started under the old schemes beyond their deadlines.

Funding is released in tranches after meeting prescribed benchmarks. The Government of India approved a total outlay of ₹303758 crore with about ₹97631 crore as central support for five years.

By late 2023, action plans or Detailed Project Reports had been approved for 30 states and union territories covering roughly ₹1.21 lakh crore of loss reduction works and ₹1.30 lakh crore of smart metering works. These projects include feeder bifurcation, agricultural feeder separation, high voltage distribution lines in loss areas, substation upgrades and large scale smart meter installations.

For example, Maharashtra’s distribution utility MSEDCL has been allocated about ₹7155 crore under RDSS for smart metering, with ₹2500 crore of that as federal funding. The remaining cost is to be borne by the state, effectively by the company.

Notably, in that approved plan, there is no separate allocation yet for loss reduction infrastructure, which would include feeder and substation works, suggesting the focus has initially been on metering. State leaders have pushed for the timely release of RDSS funds. In November 2025, the Union power ministry approved a ₹2655 crore release for Maharashtra under RDSS to strengthen its power network.

Under RDSS, distribution companies must meet tight targets. The aim is round the clock supply to all consumers, including daytime agricultural supply reduction of technical losses and full recovery of billed revenue. The scheme also provides for part B activities like training and consumer service improvements.

In Vidarbha, authorities say a coordinated plan is in place, new lines and meters will be rolled out under RDSS finance, while organisational reforms such as online billing and collection drives are pushed simultaneously.

A government report notes that 16 monitoring committee meetings have approved projects for 46 utilities nationwide, including the sanction of about 20.46 crore prepaid consumer meters, 54 lakh distribution transformer meters and 1.98 lakh feeder meters. These figures underline the scaleof Vidarbha’s share, which is the region’s hundreds of thousands of meters and kilometres of lines.

Infrastructure Upgrades in Vidarbha

On the ground in Vidarbha, major grid overhauls are underway. State officials report that under RDSS and related feeder scheme programmes, 1007 separate power feeders and 727 substations in the region are being upgraded or augmented.

These projects include bifurcating feeders to separate agricultural load raising distribution voltages and adding capacity to ageing substations.

The goal is to reduce overloading and outages so that pumps and factories can run reliably. One report notes that 314 of the planned feeder works were completed at the time of review, with many more in progress. In total, over 3000 kilometres of high and low tension lines and 9600 kilometres of new aerial bundled cables are being installed in the region as part of this programme.

These upgrades span Vidarbha’s major divisions, Akola, Amravati, Nagpur, Chandrapur and Gondia and rural as well as urban areas. Officials have stressed uninterrupted power for farms and continuous power for industries, reflecting RDSS goals.

They have ordered that daytime supply must be guaranteed for agricultural pumps while ensuring round the clock power for non-farm users, highlighting the scheme’s emphasis on serving all categories of consumers. In practice, this means building new feeders and converting low voltage rural lines into High Voltage Distribution Systems where power is sent at a higher voltage and stepped down locally. MSEDCL has integrated the smart meter programme with its existing HVDS rollout for agriculture so that many feeder lines get upgraded and metered together.

One MSEDCL official overseeing the RDSS work outlined the targets. He noted that of the 1007 feeder upgrades, 314 were done, and a vast network of new lines and cables was already in place. He urged strict quality and deadlines. Every effort must be made to reduce technical losses and recover pending dues. Financial stability of MSEDCL depends on full revenue recovery, he said. The implication is that as infrastructure improves, officials also want to clamp down on theft and bill defaults to make the utility financially sound.

At the same time, consumer services are being digitised. All MSEDCL services are now available online via the website and mobile app, reducing paperwork for new connections and complaints. Applications for meters and connections are to be processed without requiring customers to visit offices, a reform step demanded under RDSS.

Overall, Vidarbha’s distribution map is changing. Old narrow feeders are being split, rural feeders wired on poles are being replaced by HVDS cables, and substations are being strengthened.

This should, in theory, cut losses and reduce customer outages. Consumers in some upgraded areas report fewer breakdowns, although these effects will only be fully verifiable after the projects finish and data on losses and load management are analysed.

Smart Meter Rollout and Theft Prevention

Alongside line and substation works, Vidarbha is at the forefront of a large scale smart meter programme under RDSS.

The state has contracted to install tens of millions of these advanced meters across Maharashtra, with Vidarbha alone slated for 51.95 lakh smart meters at a cost of around ₹6325 crore.

Nagpur district alone accounts for over 12.8 lakh of those meters. The strategy is to use prepaid or Advanced Metering Infrastructure meters to automate billing and detect tampering. A recent analysis described the plan as one of the most significant technological transformations in the region’s power sector.

Contracts have been awarded to private firms by zone to supply, install and maintain these meters for about eight years. Work began first on government offices, railways and new feeders, then expanded to households. As of mid 2025, only a few hundred thousand meters were actually in place about 2.51 lakh in Nagpur roughly 20 percent of its target. Installation progress has been slower than planned, partly due to vendor delays. Nevertheless, villagers are seeing new prepaid meter boxes appearing on poles.

The meter push has clear motivations. In Vidarbha, AT and C losses have been very high, over 70 percent in some parts. Recent enforcement drives found thousands of cases of theft. For example, flying squads in Nagpur detected 4196 theft cases worth ₹7.19 crore in the financial year 2024–25. In the first four months of 2024 alone 1019 theft cases worth ₹6.72 crore were uncovered in Vidarbha. These figures show how widespread the problem is. Smart meters can automatically flag tampering and record accurate consumption in real time. Studies suggest they can detect meter bypass or cloning with over 90 percent accuracy.

However, the on-paper benefits depend on execution. Many installed smart meters in Vidarbha are not yet hooked into a fully automated billing system, so their real time advantage is only partly realised. Some consumers have complained about new, higher bills as accurate readings replace previous under registering old meters. In other cities, this led to suspensions of rollout until issues were ironed out. In Vidarbh, a MSEDCL says the meters will soon enable correct billing for the first time. Officials tout that accurate metering and theft reduction will boost revenue and offset any upfront costs.

Importantly, RDSS provides funding for these smart meters, subject to conditions. The central government covers a major share of the approved metering cost while the state company finances the rest.

According to official data, Maharashtra’s approved RDSS plan covers ₹7155 crore in metering works, of which ₹2500 crore is central support. The remainder must be covered by MSEDCL via state funds or loans. State authorities say this split reduces financial strain on the utility since the Centre bears a large chunk of the capital outlay. One senior official put it that widespread smart meter installations offer a win-win, allowing MSEDCL to get accurate consumption data without increasing the upfront cost to consumers.

Critics are not entirely convinced. Consumer groups point out that MSEDCL is effectively borrowing tens of thousands of crores for these meters. One activist noted that if MSEDCL covers ₹16000 crore, its share for all 2.25 crore meters in Maharashtra through loans, the company will recover that amount from consumer bills over time. He argued that regardless of funding, the entire investment ultimately flows through the tariff.

MSEDCL has rebutted this with its spokesperson saying no policy decision has been taken to pass on meter costs and that accurate meters will ultimately lower bills.

Meanwhile, in practice, the state is starting to levy fixed meter rentals or charges for these new meters.

From April 202,5 MSEDCL began charging a maintenance fee for smart meter upkeep regardless of free installation. By law, consumers can refuse meter upgrades only if existing meters are faulty, but MSEDCL argues that reliable metering is essential to prevent theft.

For now, areas with new smart meters report crisper billing and fewer suspicious connections. The technical promise remains that once fully deployed and integrated, smart metering should make theft much harder and billing more transparent.

Consumer Response and Legal Challenges

Not all reactions have been positive. In early 2025, a Vidarbha consumer body filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking to halt the mandatory installation of prepaid smart meters.

The petition argued that there was no authorised assessment of the need for these new meters and that replacing working old meters was an unwarranted financial encumbrance for consumers.

It also noted that under RDSS, the Centre funds a large share of such projects and the state funds the rest, raising questions about transparency. Tenders for meters, the court noted, were only issued after state officials sought and received RDSS approvals.

In hearings, consumer advocates emphasised the costs already borne by households and called for clarity on who ultimately pays for the new infrastructure. They argued that consumers have already replaced meters multiple times and that pushing more replacements without clear justification could be wasteful. The petition sought a directive that no compulsory smart meter installation take place until these issues are resolved.

Alongside legal action, some local activists have publicly criticised the meter rollout as a step towards privatisation of distribution. They point out that multiple contractors are involved, raising concerns about quality and maintenance. They claim MSEDCL will use the scheme to avoid new hiring and hand over key functions to private firms.

In response, MSEDCL officials maintain that the contracts have checks for components and that the company’s own field staff will handle much of the work. An MSEDCL spokesperson denied allegations that meter costs would be passed to consumers, calling them wrong. He reiterated that meters would yield precise consumption data, enabling fairer billing and reducing pilferage without burdening users.

Thus, the conversation in Vidarbha right now is as much about money and policy as about the technology. Farmers and residents welcome the promise of fewer breakdowns and theft-related surcharges. At the same time, they want assurance that the massive investments under RDSS are not simply being shifted onto them without due benefit. Local industry and agriculture chambers are similarly keen to see whether stable round the clock power, a stated RDSS goal, materialises.

As the projects continue, authorities are publicly tracking progress. Regular review meetings have become common. In those meetings, local leaders have even called for more awareness drives, for example, urging wider participation in a related rooftop solar subsidy scheme that has already lit up over 1.42 lakh rural homes in Vidarbha.

Those solar roofs were funded separately, but the emphasis on them shows the overall goal of lower distribution losses by generating some power at home.

The RDSS transformation in Vidarbha is still evolving. On the ground today, one sees new poles, fresh cables and smart meters arriving in villages and towns. Whether this will finally tame the region’s high losses and patchy supply will depend on completing the works to standard and ensuring good operations.

For now, every maintenance official’s order to ensure no compromise on supply is a sign of how seriously the reforms are being taken.

As one observer noted, Vidarbha is effectively a pilot case for these sweeping reforms; its experiences from timelines to theft statistics will influence distribution projects nationwide.

Many households in the region are watching. The hope is that within a year or two, the electricity grid they rely on will be markedly stronger and fairer under this ambitious RDSS drive.