14-hour power disruption hits 1,500 families along Dwarka Expressway

Supply was disrupted twice in 24 hours after a vehicle hit a pole and an underground 11kV feeder developed a fault.

At least 1,500 families living in four societies in Sector-99 and neighbouring areas along Dwarka Expressway were left without electricity for about 14 hours after power supply infrastructure was damaged twice within 24 hours, residents said.

Residents blamed poor street lighting for the pole crash, while DHBVN said underground fault detection delayed restoration. (HT)

The first outage began around midnight on Tuesday and lasted until 10am on Wednesday after an unidentified vehicle crashed into a roadside pole in Sector-99 on the Garhi-Basai Road, causing it to collapse and damaging overhead low-tension lines. The second outage hit at 4pm on Wednesday after an underground high-tension 11kV feeder line of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (DHBVN) developed a fault and exploded near Vienna Greens. Officials said supply restored by 8.30pm.

DHBVN officials said Pareena Laxmi, Pareena Coban, Skywhales Vienna Greens and Satya Merano Greens in Sector-99 were affected. Residents alleged that at least two hours were spent locating the fault using specialised equipment before repair works could begin. Discom officials said an estimated three to four hours would be required to fix the fault and restore supply by 10pm.

Santosh Singh, a resident of Pareena Laxmi, said residential societies along the expressway faced prolonged outages frequently. “Tuesday night’s outage was caused by the fact that there is no street light in the area, roads are not properly built and electric poles are hardly visible amid such a situation. Thus, an unknown vehicle ended up hitting the pole, causing it to break, which resulted in the outage,” he said.

Residents said the area was poorly lit, as streetlights were not functional. Singh said most inverters had drained during the lengthy outage, leaving families struggling amid humidity and high temperatures.

Sandeep Walia, another resident, said DHBVN officials initially tried to replace the damaged pole at night using a crane but could not find daily-wage workers. “They finally got the required number of labourers on Wednesday morning and fixed the damaged pole and lines,” he said, adding that a team of MCG officials visited the area after the accident to check the streetlights.

A senior DHBVN official said an FIR would be registered against the unidentified vehicle driver for allegedly damaging the pole. “Earlier also, power supply infrastructure in the area was damaged from similar accidents,” he said.

The officer said locating faults in underground feeders takes time, stretching outages. “Once the fault is located, repair works are carried out soon, and supply is restored in a phased manner to avoid overloading,” he said.

Incidentally, the outages come as the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission is expected to take a decision on Thursday on a petition by a private firm seeking permission for a licence to parallelly supply power to domestic and industrial consumers in Gurugram and Nuh.