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‘Surplus power’ remains a hollow claim for Mohali
The frequent power outages in Mohali attributed to ageing infrastructure, shortage of staff, poor maintenance
The state government’s tall claims of “surplus power” notwithstanding, Sectors 76 to 80 again remained plunged in darkness for six hours on Thursday.
The city continues to reel under frequent and unscheduled power cuts, attributed to inadequate infrastructure, acute staff shortage, poor maintenance and failure to restructure staff as per consumer growth, amid the sultry weather conditions..
As per the record, there are 571 sanctioned posts for linemen and assistant linemen in the district, but 203 posts are lying vacant. Surprisingly, there is one junior engineer, who has been given the charge of 17 sectors (from Sectors 76-113) and nine villages, along with two linemen.
Overloaded power transformers, distribution and transmission lines as well as breakdowns in the infrastructure have worsened the situation.
Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) chief engineer Sandeep Gupta admitted the frequent outages caused due to maintenance work, saying, “I held a meeting with officers of Mohali circle and told them about the upkeep of power infrastructure.”
Pinning the blame on Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), he said, the “state-of-the-art” infrastructure created using underground cables in Ecocity, Aerocity, and IT City broke down frequently, causing power outages that lasted for several hours. “Some of the cables are damaged and are entangled with other cables, which results in frequent faults due to overload,” he added.
As per the record available, many 11KV lines are overloaded in addition to multiple 66 KV grids having radial (single) source of supply and in absence of alternative source, residents feel the brunt of sweltering weather. Recently, Zirakpur reeled under a 50-hour-long power cut, making life miserable for the residents.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sanjeev Vashist said the PSPCL wasyet to wake up from its slumber to plan for providing an alternative source of supply, adding that the officers had failed to plan and foresee the load expected in the summer. “The record further said there are around 19 grid sub-stations, out of which around 30% of them are overloaded and have the inadequate infrastructure to cater to the urban demand of the ever-increasing load,” he added.
A tale of failed promises
The 66-kilovolt (KV) grids in Mullanpur, Bhabhat, Phase 9 Mohali, Gillco in Kharar are overloaded due to which rotational cuts are imposed, while similar capacity grids at Tuer village near Mullanpur, Mullanpur and Seonk rotational cuts are imposed due to overloading of the lines.
Urban areas are also facing power cuts due to overloaded transformers, which are often damaged resulting in power outages from nearly 18 to 24 hours. Residents also alleged that defective and damaged metres are not being replaced due to an acute shortage resulting in abnormal billing and direct supply in many cases.
Most of them are also unable to benefit from the 300 units per month of free electricity promised by the state government because of the power cuts.
Punjab State Advisory committee regulatory electricity commission member PS Virdi said despite repeated reminders, the concerned officers had not made a plan to upgrade the basic infrastructure. “They should have changed the cables and increased the capacity of the transformers, but did not do it for the past two years,” he added.
There are nearly 3.5 lakh consumers in different categories in Mohali district , of which 3 lakh fall in the domestic category.
