13-hour blackout in most parts of Ludhiana city inconveniences residents

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, March 31

Power supply to the 66 kV PAU substation and 66 kV Fountain Chowk substation of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) remained disrupted for nearly 13 hours on Wednesday due to damage caused to a main power cable between the 220 kV Firozepur Road substation, which feeds the two 66 kV substations. Power supply that was shut at around 2.30 pm on Wednesday could be restored only after 3 am on Thursday.

Will take up matter with NHAI: PSPCL official

A PSPCL official said they were taking up the matter with the NHAI authorities to keep close coordination with power utility staff so that the work being executed at the elevated project site could not again cause any damage to power cables.

Senior PSPCL officials attributed the damage to the main power cable to the ongoing work on the elevated road project being executed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), saying the power cable could have been damaged due to the digging work going on at the project site.

As a result of the snag, nearly 30 feeders connected to the 66 kV substations PAU and Fountain Chowk went powerless putting around one lakh residents to huge inconvenience due to the summer heat. Affected areas also had to bear the brunt of disruption in the municipal water supply in the evening.

Several residents in the affected areas kept frantically calling PSPCL complaint centres and customer care service to know the reason behind the power failure for such a long duration without getting any satisfactory reply or possible schedule for the restoration of the supply.

“As night drew near, we were at our wits’ end as the children refused to sleep till power supply was restored as power inverters had also gone dead. Ultimately, all our family members put mattresses on the terrace and tried to sleep in the open which again was tough due to the hot weather and mosquitoes,” said a resident of the Upkar Nagar locality in the Civil Lines.

PSPC officials claimed that it took a long time to rectify the fault and restore power supply because the fault lied in an underground cable and finding the exact spot of the damaged cable was a tough job. “In any case, most of the top officials, along with technical staff, remained camped at the site of the fault till the damaged cable was repaired and power supply restored,” claimed the officials.

Another PSPCL official said they were taking up the matter with the NHAI authorities to keep close coordination with the power utility staff so that the work being executed at the elevated project site could not again cause any damage to power cables.

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