Massive outages in west Delhi after power line snaps

The hottest day of the season became unbearable for some parts of the city as residents faced power cuts lasting for as long as 10 hours. HT reports.

The hottest day of the season became unbearable for some parts of the city as residents faced power cuts lasting for as long as 10 hours.

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A major snag in one of the conductors of Delhi Transco Limited at Papankalan resulted in an unexpected 10-hour power cut in large parts of west Delhi.

The snag took place in a 220 KV live conductor around 3:16 pm when it got damaged after coming in contact with an electric pole at Madhu Chowk.

"The line expanded due to high temperature and a street light on the central verge of a main road came in its clearance zone and it snapped. It resulted in 150 MW of rotational load-shedding in Dwarka, Matiyala, Bindapur and adjoining areas. The line is expected to be normal by Friday as there is heavy traffic on the road, hampering maintenance," said a senior Delhi Transco Limited official.

A number of areas such as Dwarka, Palam, Mahavir Enclave, Janakprui, Madhu Vihar, Matiyala, Rajouri Garden, Punjabi Bagh, Najafgarh, Uttam Nagar, Mundka among others faced power cuts lasting more than six hours and are likely to go powerless till Friday.

"There was no electricity for nearly four hours and they have told us that they will continue to carry out load-shedding on a rotational basis. The government has been assuring us that there will be no power cuts but every year they fail to deliver. The discoms fix the tariff according to their will and still they are not able to provide uninterrupted power supply," said Naveen Kumar Matta, a resident of Rajouri Garden and president of the RWA.

This is the second time in a week that a major fault occurred in west Delhi. Last Saturday a similar fault had left west Delhi powerless for over six to eight hours. The maximum demand on Thursday crossed the 5,000-mark and stood at 5055 MW.

The power department claimed they were unable to take up the restoration work due to peak hour traffic.

"The work involves dealing with high-frequency wires, which can't be done during peak hours with public and traffic around," said a senior officer.