Bhatt said this on Monday, while inaugurating a 10-day training workshop for staffers of the Board's Rajkot and Anand circles, which are being developed as profit centres.

Aimed at improving customer service, creating effective cost control systems, improving revenue collection and reducing transmission and distribution losses, the Rajkot profit centre, inaugurated on November 7, has been set up on the Asian Development Bank's recommendation.

Nearly 30 GEB employees of the ranks of superintending engineers and executive engineers and others staff of the Rajkot and Anand Circles are attending the workshop, where they will be imparted training to turn the centres into profit centres.

Daniel Musson of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a consultant firm and Hemant Bhattbhatt of the C C Chokshi and Company are conducting the workshop.

Speaking on the occasion, Bhatt said the training programme would go a long way in enabling the employees to gain necessary knowledge for running the profit centres effectively.

Stating that the GEB was the first Board in the country to have converted the circles as profit circles, the chairman hoped that other Boards would also follow suit. He said after seeing the two circles' performance, the remaining 17 circles would be converted into profit centres. According to Bhatt, besides powers to purchase powers, transfers and recovering arrears, accountability was also a key factor. The chairman assured best possible help from the headquarters to run the profit centres effectively.

He warned employees not to take work for granted as the profit centres at some places like Gondal were `known' for indulging in power theft. While stating that he did not want to paint a rosy picture regarding transmission and distribution losses, he said it would take some time to set things right.

He said efforts would be made to release High Tension connections to industries at the earliest.

Highlighting importance of the profit centres, Executive Director (Finance) P K Das said with these centres, the Board hoped to release connections at a fast pace.

Among others, Member (Technical) K K Vaghela, Board secretary A J Shah and Chief Engineer (Fuel) M C Gandhi, attended the inauguration.