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Amid dropping temperatures, Srinagar faces 4-8 hours of power outage daily
The Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) announced a 32-hour to 56-hour per week power curtailment schedule a month, earlier than it had announced the same last year
According to the new schedule announced by the power department, summer capital Srinagar is set to face power cuts ranging from 4.5 to eight hours every day. As snowfall continues in the region, bringing down temperatures, the electricity issues are set to adversely affect the people.
The Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) announced a 32-hour to 56-hour per week power curtailment schedule a month, earlier than it had announced the same last year.
The KPDCL said that the non-metered areas of summer capital Srinagar will face power cuts for 8 hours every day and it will be 4.5 hours in metered areas.
While the metered areas will see 1.5 hour- cuts every three hours (thrice a day), the detailed schedule for non-metered areas has not come out. Residents in non-metered areas said that they were facing power cuts of three hours every two hours (twice) and of two hours once in a day. People said that the Valley was already facing unscheduled power cuts.
The announcement has irked the people, who flayed the administration for making claims of improving the power scenario every year.
Mustafa Bhat, a resident, shared a picture of his son studying under a head-mounted, battery-powered bulb for exams amid the blackout on social networking platform Facebook.
“For the first time in my life such worst power curtailment, that too in the month of October. Is someone listening?,” he said in a post, while tagging KPDCL.
Mudasir from Lolab in north Kashmir said, “Harsh winter is yet to come but miseries of people have started.”
Last week, chief secretary Arun Kumar Mehta held a review meeting in Srinagar and had asked the divisional administration to ensure power.
“The scheduled eight-hour cut in non-metered areas should be ensured besides taking measures for uninterrupted power supply to all the smart metered habitations,” he had said.
Last year in March, lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha had said that areas with smart meters were to be made curtailment free. In 2021, he had said that J&K would turn from a power-deficit to power-surplus region within four years and that there would be 24-hour power supply.
The Kashmir valley was already facing power curtailments this year right from summers owing to what officials said was low discharge in rivers. The department was in the process of acquiring 500 MW power every day,but officials said that this would not solve the shortfall.
The administration spends over ₹31,000 crore per year to purchase electricity from the Northern Grid.
