Fed up with outages, over 3K Lucknowites dialing power helpline every day

In all, the power helpline has been receiving 18-20,000 phone calls every day for the last 20 days, highlighting the severity of power cuts.

LUCKNOW Phones are ringing all day at the ‘1912’ power helpline as residents of the 12 districts under the Madhyanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam are facing frequent power cuts in the scorching June heat. From Lucknow alone, about 3,000 complaints are received every day at the helpline.

According to the helpline staff, most of the calls regarding power cuts are received between 9 am and 1:30 am. (HT Photo)

According to the helpline staff, most of the calls regarding power cuts are received between 9 am and 1:30 am. However, the helpline receives 600-700 calls on average between 2 am and 9 am as well. In all, the power helpline has been receiving 18-20,000 phone calls every day for the last 20 days, highlighting the severity of power cuts. The high number of complaint calls are likely to continue till the onset of the monsoon season.

In Lucknow, the complaint calls are forwarded to junior engineers, assistant engineers, executive engineers, and senior engineers of the concerned areas while the station officer of the particular area has to ensure that all the complaints are attended to and solved within two hours. If the complaint is not solved within 2 hours, then the concerned official has to give an explanation for it, according to Madhyanchal officials.

Soumil Sinha, the executive engineer who handles the 1912 helpline, said, “We have 180 lines from different companies -- including BSNL -- on which we can receive calls from customers all at the same time. However, we have only 120 staff members. Out of them, 20 members are given the duty to dial back consumers after their calls are attended to. The remaining 100 staff members receive calls simultaneously. All engineers of the Madhyanchal receive complaints through an internal app and when the complaint is solved, it has to be closed by the concerned staff.”

The official added, “During winters, the 1912 helpline receives between 200-to-300 complaints per hour. This jumps to more than 1,000 calls per hour during summers. Things would remain the same till September.”