Kansal residents face 9-hour outages daily despite completion of 66 kV upgrade

Residents said outages lasting up to nine hours have become routine, severely affecting water supply, household work and small businesses

Kansal residents continue to face prolonged power outages everyday for over a month, with supply disrupted for several hours without prior explanation from Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).

PSPCL officials attributed the disruption to upgradation of the 66 kV Majra–Mullanpur line. (HT Photo)

Even after completion of major upgradation works on Monday, parts of Kansal, including Shivalik Vihar and Sukhna Enclave, experienced fresh outages on Thursday between 10.22 am and 5.30 pm, leaving residents without electricity.

Residents said outages lasting up to nine hours have become routine, severely affecting water supply, household work and small businesses. Gurpreet S Malhotra, a Kansal resident, said large parts of the area and surrounding villages have been facing daily disruptions without any formal communication. He added that consumers were not informed through newspapers or public notices, leaving them unaware of the reasons behind the extended cuts.

PSPCL officials attributed the disruption to upgradation of the 66 kV Majra–Mullanpur line, including conductor augmentation and infrastructure strengthening across the 66 kV Mullanpur Garibdas, Seonk and Eco City grids. However, residents pointed out that when the work was initially announced, it was expected to be completed within 15 days. Instead, the process stretched to nearly 45 days, causing prolonged inconvenience.

Sub-divisional officer Yaman Goyal said the latest outage in Shivalik Vihar was due to the repair of a transformer that had become unsafe after road reconstruction altered its height. He said the work was carried out as per safety standards following a petition filed by a resident in court and assured that no further outages were expected. As a result, the entire Kansal region was affected on Thursday.

While Kansal continues to face interruptions, residential societies in New Chandigarh and adjoining villages saw restoration of supply on Monday, after nearly six weeks of disruption linked to the same upgradation work. The outages had affected villages like Togan, Ratwara, Mullanpur, Nayagaon, Karoran, Seonkh, Tanda, Tandi, Parol and Teeda, and several housing societies such as Omaxe Cassia, The Address, impacting lakhs of residents.

Resident welfare associations (RWAs) in New Chandigarh said the prolonged outages forced heavy reliance on backup generators of housing societies, significantly increasing monthly expenses. Ashwani Kumar Malhotra of Omaxe Cassia said genset usage more than doubled during the period, while frequent power fluctuations also damaged electrical appliances in several households.

The extended outages coincided with a shortage of LPG cylinders and restrictions on bookings, forcing many households to depend on electricity-based cooking, further disrupting daily routines. Businesses reported losses due to repeated shutdowns, and irregular supply also affected groundwater pumping, worsening water availability in several areas.

Residents have questioned why such extensive maintenance and upgradation work was not scheduled during winter months and have raised concerns over planning and communication by PSPCL.