The Punjab Government on Thursday said it will restructure cash-strapped Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) bifurcating electricity utility into two state- owned companies.

"As part of final step towards power reforms, the Punjab cabinet took the historic decision to restructure the PSEB in compliance of the Central Electricity Act, 2003," Punjab chief secretary S C Aggarwal told reporters here.

As part of the restructuring exercise, there will be two companies-- Power company (Powercom) to manage generation and distribution and another Transmission Company (Transco) to manage transmission function, he said.

"Restructuring will not be privatisation, there will be no private shares in the companies. Both these companies will be fully-owned and managed by the state Government," he added.

Aggarwal said "minimum structuring" was being done to meet the requirements of the Act-- that is one transmission company with employee strength of 3,500 and the rest of the employees around 65,000 with the Power company.

In the process of restructuring, the interest of consumers, including weaker sections, employees, farmers were being protected, he said.

The two companies-- Punjab State Transmission Corporation Ltd (Transco) and Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (Powercom) after getting registered with the registrar of Central Government tomorrow will be notified by the state Government day after.

Aggarwal said, at present, the total losses of PSEB is Rs 10,000 crore.

As per the provincial evaluation the total assets of PSEB are to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore, he said, adding that the final evaluation will take at least six months time.

"After restructuring, the companies will have clean balance sheets as their assets will be unlimited which will enable them to use more funds from banks and financial institutions for better supply and services," he said.

He said the CMD and directors of the companies would be appointed by the state government.

Power subsidy to BPL families will remain unaffected and employees will continue to get existing benefits, including, pension, gratuity, leave encashment, DA and annual increment he added.

"The liabilities amounting to around Rs 16,000 crore of PSEB will be transferred to the new companies," he said.

Reacting to power employees going on strike to oppose unbundling, Aggarwal said throughout the state electricity supply is "absolutely normal.