Power board faces technical staff shortage

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 14

There will be more blackouts and power cuts as Himachal Pradesh Electricity Board Ltd is reeling under an acute shortage of technical hands. The board needs over 7,000 technical hands for running the power supply and maintenance of electricity lines across the state.

The near breakdown of the HPSEBL’s distribution network of power supply in the city on Monday is a glaring example. This is not an isolated case.

The consumers in the apple belt of Chopal and Theog, Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti, Pangi-Bharmaur-Tissa face power cuts and blackouts throughout the year and these peak during the snowfall.

The people in Lahaul-Spiti remained without power for a month in September–October, 2018 due to untimely snowfall that snapped power lines, but there were no linemen to restore the supply. According to the data accessed by The Tribune, the HPSEBL needs a minimum 7,000 technical hands to run the distribution of the electricity and repair and maintenance of the transmission lines. These posts have not been created, but these positions have fallen vacant over the years in the board, said insiders.

People were forced to live without electricity for over 12 hours on Monday after the cable of the main 33 KV line that runs from Jatog power house to Snowdown snapped. They did not have enough technical linemen to pull the wire, for which ‘khan’ labourers were hired, who helped restore the power supply in the city after 12 hours.

There are five major electrical sections in the city, each managing the 33 KV lines, which come from Jatog power house, crossing the forest areas before it reaches the sub-stations in the city. The long stretched lines are susceptible to damage due to snowfall, landslides and windstorm as the trees get uprooted and damage the line, said the field staff.

These five HPSEBL sections, each managing 20 MW electricity supply in the city, needs 30 technical staff. But the HPSEBL has not even one third of the technical staff in place in the city to ensure hassle-free service to over 2.5 lakh people and 20,000 tourists who visit the city every day.

General secretary of HPSEBL employees union HL Verma said there seemed to be a deliberate move not to fill the vacant posts in the board so that the distribution of power services could be outsourced to the private company, which the union opposed. “These posts should be filled immediately so that the consumers do not suffer”, the members demanded.

JP Kalta, Managing Director, HPSEBL, said over 800 people have been appointed while another 600 more are under the process of being employed. “We hire more labourers from time to time to meet out the emergency situation”, he added.