KARACHI: K-Electric installed 90,000 new connections during the financial year 2017-18 (July 2017 to date) including the installation of 63,000 meters at low-cost for underprivileged customers. The power utility, in line with its customer-centric approach and focus on continuous improvement, has also streamlined the process of acquiring a new power connection last year by making the application process faster, simpler and readily available at 29 locations across the city. Under this initiative, customers were also kept updated about the status of their new connection application through timely SMS updates. The new connections were installed by a dedicated team that remained available throughout the process to offer assistance to the applicant via email and a 118 call center. The new connection application form is also available on the company’s website. Based on valuable customer input and feedback, certain requirements were also simplified to ease the process of acquisition of a new or additional meters. As per KE Spokesperson, “Aimed at providing one-window solutions for the provision of new power connections, the process transformation has proved to be an effective solution for our customers. Initiatives like process automation and reduction in number of requirements were well received by the customers and has also considerably reduced the turnaround time for acquiring a new connection. K-Electric only uses meters that are in line with global standards and purchased from ISO certified manufacturers.” Last year, KE also joined hands with 1LINK, HabibMetro Bank and Faysal Bank to provide funds deposit facility for customers seeking new electricity connections. The power utility would be partnering with more banks for funds deposit in the coming months. Published in Daily Times, January 19th 2018.