Gurugram power crisis: Police deployed at substations; residents scramble for essentials

A three-day strike by power utility employees in Haryana left thousands of households grappling with prolonged electricity and water outages, disrupted businesses and forced police deployment at substations and distribution company offices to prevent vandalism by angry consumers, before the agitation was called off on Friday evening

A three-day strike by power utility employees in Haryana left thousands of households grappling with prolonged electricity and water outages, disrupted businesses and forced police deployment at substations and distribution company offices to prevent vandalism by angry consumers, before the agitation was called off on Friday evening.

Locals blocked the railway station road on Friday to protest against the prolonged power cut. (HT Photo)

Chief minister Nayab Singh Saini ordered the immediate restoration of electricity in affected areas after the strike, which began at 10pm on Wednesday, triggered widespread disruption across the state.

In Gurugram, several localities reported outages lasting nearly 40 hours by Friday evening, with residents alleging that employees had switched off feeders and stopped responding to repair calls.

Police were deployed at Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam’s (DHBVN) Circle-1 office on MG Road and several subdivision offices in Old Gurugram. In Rewari, police helped discom officials restart at least 20 feeders. Similar measures were taken in Hisar, Karnal, Kaithal and Faridabad. In Nuh, deputy commissioner Akhil Pilani deployed 12 magistrates across the district to maintain law and order.

In Gurugram, Ashok Vihar, Sectors 3, 5 and 7, Dhanwapur, Daulatabad, Om Nagar, Palam Vihar, New Colony, Kadipur, Farrukhnagar and residential societies along Dwarka Expressway were among the worst affected.

DHBVN officials said Old Gurugram, Dwarka Expressway and Manesar, which fall under Circle-1, were particularly affected because its field workforce consisted of contractual employees or regular staff participating in the strike. Officials alleged that several feeders had been switched off and fault-repair calls were going unanswered. Circle-2, where repair and maintenance work is outsourced to a private firm whose employees continued working, did not experience similarly severe outages, a senior discom official said.

Of the 1,228 feeders across the two circles, 519 fall under Circle-1. Its 12 subdivisions received more than 5,100 complaints on Thursday, over seven times the daily average, a senior DHBVN official said.

The disruption left residents scrambling for basic necessities. Some professionals working from home shifted to malls and coffee shops to access electricity and internet, while depleted inverter batteries and phone charges compounded the difficulties.

Ashkit Mohan, a resident of Pareena Laxmi society in Sector 99, said he had been working from a mall in Sector 84 for two days. “I can keep my laptop and phone charged and have access to the internet. There has been no power at my society since Thursday. My wife is looking after our two-year-old son at home while coping with the disruption,” he said.

In Sheetla Colony, Sector 5, Radha Devi said she bought 10 candles for ₹15 each on Thursday evening after nearly 40 hours without electricity. “We are doing household chores by candlelight. Some neighbours tried buying candles on Friday but most shops had run out,” she said.

Another resident, Manoj Sharma, alleged that some shops were charging up to ₹10 extra for mineral water jars. E-rickshaws had also disappeared from roads because drivers could not charge their vehicles, he said, while deliveries through online platforms were affected as delivery workers’ electric vehicles ran out of charge.

The outages also disrupted water supply, as residents could not operate pumps to fill overhead tanks.

Although the strike was called off on Friday evening, the disruption had left residents across affected areas struggling to secure electricity, water and basic connectivity for much of three days.