The union territory of Lakshadweep has become the latest signatory to the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) program which has been implemented by the government of India to assist in the financial and operational turnaround of the distribution companies across the country.

The government of India and the union territory of Lakshadweep signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on February 28, 2018, under the UDAY program for the turnaround of Lakshadweep’s electricity department.

According to the statement released by the Ministry of Power, Lakshadweep will receive an overall net benefit of approximately ₹80 million (~$1,225,680) by participating in government’s UDAY program.

The benefits will come through cheaper funds, reduction in aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses, and interventions in energy efficiency.

“The reduction in AT&C losses to 10 percent is likely to bring additional revenue of around ₹30 million (~$459,631) during the period of turnaround,” the government’s statement said.

Recently, Mercom reported that the aggregate technical and commercial losses for the states and union territories under the UDAY program increased in the past one year, according to the data released by the government.

According to the government data, as of December 2017, the AT&C losses in 24 of the UDAY states and union territories stood at 22.73 percent.

Mercom had previously reported that with the joining of Nagaland and the union territories of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, and Daman & Diu, the number of UDAY signatories had reached 31 (27 states and 4 union territories). With the signing of the MoU, Lakshadweep has become the 32nd participant of the program.

While most of these states and union territories have joined the program for a financial turnaround of their DISCOMs, a few of them have also joined for the operational and technical makeover of these utilities.