Chennai:
Tamil Nadu has launched measures to strengthen its electricity distribution network ahead of the monsoon, including raising 15,000 pillar boxes and replacing more than 1,600 ageing transformers in Chennai and neighbouring districts. Energy Resources Minister R Nirmal Kumar said nearly 1,000 pillar boxes had already been raised and 5,000 personnel were being inducted to address manpower shortages. The government is also likely to defer smart meter tenders by two months to incorporate data-security safeguards, including hosting consumer data on electricity board servers instead of private cloud infrastructure.