'The 20 hrs were unbearable'

Simi Bhat's inverter could not provide backup for the 20 hours she did not have power at her Mayur Vihar Phase III home.

Simi Bhat's inverter could not provide backup for the 20 hours she did not have power at her Mayur Vihar Phase III home.

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"We were told that there was a problem in the transformer and power would be restored soon. It was humid and the inverter also ran out in a few hours. The 20 hours were unbearable," Bhat said.

She was among the lakhs of east Delhi residents who suffered in the marathon power cuts on Saturday.

The brief spell of rain a day earlier had prompted a cat to seek shelter in an 11KV grid panel, resulting in a short circuit that caused the blackout.

According to power distribution company BSES Yamuna Power Ltd, a cat entered a panel of the Kondli grid and got electrocuted. "The cat jumped onto the panel section to take cover from the rain and got electrocuted. This resulted in short circuit, which caused a fire. Several other panels got burnt. This affected power supply to east Delhi areas," said a senior power department official.

The situation, however, could have been averted had the power distribution company made an arrangement to supply power through an alternative feed.

"The power supply could have been normalised faster had the BYPL arranged for an alternative feed. But in this case, people had to suffer one of the worst power cuts only because discoms have been careless," said the power department official.

According to a BSES spokesperson, the work to replace the panels is being carried out. The situation had not improved till late on Saturday evening