Power cuts give sleepless nights to city residents

Ramkrishan Upadhyay 

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Chandigarh, April 28 

With the increase in temperature, residents have started facing power cuts  in different sectors for hours together. 

The residents of southern sectors are the worst affected as they have been facing power cuts  for a longer period of time. Though officers of the Electricity Department claim that there is no shortage of power but the residents from various parts of the city said they had been facing unscheduled power cuts. Rajesh Kumar, a resident of Sector 49, said there were frequent power cuts since last week. The complaint centre was receiving calls for unscheduled power cut every day. Suresh Singh, a resident of Sector 18, said there was fluctuation in voltage in his sector for the past many days. The electronic items were not working properly because of the low voltage. 

Sanjay Singh, a resident of Sector 51, said there was no power for two hours last night. Rohit Sood of Sector 37 said the city was facing unprecedented power problems. Sources said the demand of the electricity had reached up to 350 MW and it would continue to increase in the coming days. At present, the city is getting around 250 MW electricity daily from different sources. It has been procuring 100 MW additional electricity to meet the rising demand. UT Superintending Engineer (Electricity) MP Singh said arrangements had been made to meet the power demand during peak hours. He said tenders had been issued to supply power for different slots (day and night). He said there was no plan to impose scheduled power cut this summer.

Unscheduled power cuts, excess load and lack of infrastructure, say locals

"With the onset of summer, residents of southern sectors have been facing unscheduled power cuts. The Administration has to make purchases of power from other sources planned well in advance. The gap between demand and supply should be reduced." Satish Chandra Sharma, chairman, Group Housing cooperative welfare council 

"The main cause of power breakdown is the excess load being consumed by residents. Transformers do not support these heavy loads and the department has failed in upgrading the system. It has become a routine for the residents of the sector to face power cut during summer." Major RS Gujral (Retd),  president, Chandigarh Defence Colony Welfare Association Sec 35

"Residents of southern sectors are the worst hit as they face power outage every summer. The power cut has become a routine in the societies due to the lack of infrastructure in the area." SS Bharadwaj, chairman, Chandigarh Social Welfare Council