The State Power Department has prepared a Cabinet Memorandum proposing amalgamation of its three distribution companies into one and outsourcing some functions in a select number of urban and rural electrical circles. Stating this at a press conference here this afternoon, Power Minister Pradyut Bordoloi said that the re-bundling of the distribution companies would of course be done by setting some benchmark for quality improvement, while outsourcing was proposed as a pilot project. The entire proposal has been mooted in a bid to make things more competitive for the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) and its successor companies and to provide quality service to the power consumers, he said. He informed media persons at a press conference that the urban areas proposed for the purpose include one urban centre in each of the three distribution companies. And the areas for which the outsourcing is proposed include