Gzb to get up to 8 hrs of power cuts

Meena Maheshwari, a resident of Delta colony plans to invest Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000 for purchase of another two-battery inverter set for her house due to pathetic power supply situation she expects ahead of peak summer.

Meena Maheshwari, a resident of Delta colony plans to invest Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000 for purchase of another two-battery inverter set for her house due to pathetic power supply situation she expects ahead of peak summer.

HT Image

The summer season would almost be same again for Ghaziabad residents as power department officials said that 6-8 hours of scheduled power cuts would be witnessed during the peak summer months, despite the fact that Ghaziabad contributes the highest electricity-revenues to the state.

As a result, the residents of high-rises in Indirpauram, Vaishali, Kaushambi and Delta colonies can expect another round of inflated monthly budget, due to six-eight hours — albeit in bits — of scheduled power cuts this summer.

"Builder's power-backup system costs anything between R10-13 per unit as against R4 charged by power department. Thus, the bill increase by around R2,500 per month in case of disrupted supply situation,” said Kuldeep Saxena from Indirpauram RWA confederation.

On Friday and Saturday, Vaishali and Indirapuram residents were left reeling due to 12 hours of power cut due to upgradation work at Vaishali sub-station. Officials said only 12-13 hours of supply was possible due to maintenance which would take three more days.

The situation is further marred as four new 132 KV power sub-stations at DPH, Tila Morh, Hapur Road and Govindpuram, which were expected to get completed by this summer, would now be ready only by September/ October.

"The work has been delayed due to several bottlenecks. People can expect 6-8 hours of scheduled power cuts this summer and the situation would remain grim," said chief engineer (transmission) AP Mishra.

Officials said that there were some capacity enhancing arrangements undertaken at Sahibabad, Loni and Vaishali sub-stations which would marginally improve the situation.