Residents spend sleepless night as power snapped for over 9 hours

Thousands of residents had to spend sleepless night as power was snapped for over nine hours in many city areas, including Civil Lines, Ghumar Mandi, near PAU, Sarabha Nagar, Malhar Road, DC Complex, Fountain Chowk, Dandi Swami, etc. The electricity supply, which snapped around 9:30 pm on Tuesday night, was restored at 7 am on Wednesday. The underground power lines had developed a major technical snag in Sarabha Nagar, which was the reason for the power disruption. To rectify the fault, power lines of the major four sub-stations were snapped on Tuesday night.

The Chief Engineer, Jagdev Singh Hans, told The Tribune that they got to know about the technical snag around three days ago and it had to be resolved for which power lines were disconnected. “The repair work was done on Tuesday night for over nine hours and for the same, consumers had to face inconvenience. The power lines of the four sub stations — Fountain Chowk, PAU, DC Complex and Sarabha Nagar — was snapped for major repairs,” the Chief Engineer said.

He added that thousands of consumers were affected due to the repair work as it was a major fault which needed proper maintenance.

At the same time, the same underground lines had developed a technical snag last year also due to which consumers had to bear the brunt. This year also, the lines developed a technical snag in the past.

“We are in the process of changing wires. The wires were placed at the time when overbridges were constructed. Earlier, the lines were overhead and the issue used to be resolved easily. We have put tenders for fresh lines and hope that in next few months, the power lines are changed to provide respite to the consumers,” said Hans.

Residents rued that they had to face inconvenience during the night in the absence of power. Many of them got panicky, thinking it was another “blackout”. “We came to know in the morning that there was some technical snag,” said Surabhi Kaushal, a resident.