Delhiites continue to suffer from outages

The national capital continued to reel under long power cuts amid hot and humid conditions with some areas even facing power cuts for three to four hours.

Power department officials attributed the loadshedding to planned shutdown of major transmission lines as well as to local faults.

Several transmissions lines in South Delhi were closed to help PWD and other agencies carry out works related to Commonwealth Games. The officials said most of the areas in South Delhi faced a string of power cuts as the Badarpur-Okhla transmission line was closed from 7 am to 12 noon.

Residents in Bhogal and Ashram said the loadshedding in their areas lasted for four hours. Long outages ranging from two to four hours were also reported from several areas in East and North Delhi.

"There was no power in our locality for about four hours. We complained to the local BSES office. But nobody responded to our complaints," said Narendra Kumar, a resident of Bhogal.

Power department officials said the maximum demand on Wednesday was recorded at 4,537 mw. The power demand in the city on Monday had touched an all-time high of 4,668 mega watt. The previous highest power requirement in the city was recorded on May 24 this year at 4,581 mega watt.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had Tuesday directed the power distribution companies to pull up their socks and ensure uninterrupted power supply.

At a meeting with chief executive officers of all the three private discoms, Dikshit had told them that the city has enough power to meet the rising demand and government would not take the loadshedding "lightly".

Officials said the availability of power from generating stations within Delhi was 1,118 MW while the city got 2,379 MW from central quota and another 1,311 MW from bilateral arrangements.

The discoms of Delhi arranged additional power to the tune of 1,532 MW in the last 24 hours.

An official of BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd said to cater to the increasing demand the discom bought 18 per cent additional power in April and May this year comparing to corresponding period last year.

He said BSES Yamuna Power Ltd bought 15 per cent more power in April and May this year corresponding to same period last year.

The official said both the companies are doing their best to ensure that the consumers do not face any inconvenience.