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Ludhiana: Mild showers trigger long electricity cuts across city
Among the worst affected areas were Urban Vihar, Punjabi Bagh, Guru Gyan Vihar, Jammu Colony, Vishnupuri, Pritampuri, Santokh Nagar, Preet Nagar and Harpal Nagar
Despite tall claims regarding “all weather ready” infrastructure, residents of several areas in Ludhiana witnessed four to five hours of power outage after a light shower on Wednesday. Among the worst affected areas were Urban Vihar, Punjabi Bagh, Guru Gyan Vihar, Jammu Colony, Vishnupuri, Pritampuri, Santokh Nagar, Preet Nagar and Harpal Nagar. Amid the rainfall, over 13 feeders of 11 KV went down, seven of which were in the Model Town division.
Ramnik Singh, a resident of Jammu Colony, said, “At the beginning of the year, the power department announced plans to expand maintenance work and install new transformers to prevent these outages. Despite that, the supply gets disrupted after every two to three days. Rain compounds the crisis, leading to prolonged power outages.”
Similarly, Neelam, a resident of Pritampuri, said, “This is the story every time it rains in the city where we keep trying to get in touch with the officials concerned or register complaints on the 1912 helpline, but they never respond. It disrupts our routine in the middle of the day, leaving us waiting for hours for electricity to be restored.”
When contacted, Tarsem Lal, XEN of the Model Town division, said, “The disturbance was mainly due to maintenance work in the area, for which we had to switch off two feeders. It was a planned outage, and we had taken permission to suspend the supply.”
Heavy rain expected
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has stated that isolated heavy rainfall is likely over Punjab on August 20 and then from August 22 to 26. It had issued an orange alert (heavy rain) for the day .The city recorded 23 mm rain till 4:30 pm.
The district this month, so far, has recorded 94.6 mm rain. The normal for the month is 190.3 mm rain. The district recorded 239.9 mm rain last year. The showers brought the maximum temperature down by 4.4° Celsius.
The city has seen more rainfall this monsoon, so far, compared to the last few years. Ludhiana recorded 311.9 mm rain this July, over twice the amount of rain the city received during the month last year. June logged 131.1 mm rainfall, the highest since 2013 when the month saw 148.7 mm rainfall.
The IMD expects the seasonal rainfall to be around normal. The normal rain in the city during the monsoon season (late June till September) is measured at 599.7 mm rain by the Punjab Agricultural University’s (PAU) department of climate change and agricultural meteorology. The city saw 524.7 mm rain in the season last year.
