Unprepared Delhiites gearing up to face long power outages

The inverters that were packed away or sold are being repaired and the demand for new ones has soared.

The long power outages in the national capital have taken Delhiites back to the summers around 10 years ago when power cuts were routine.

Many people say it’s the first time after years that they have experienced prolonged power cuts in their areas. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

The inverters that were packed away or sold are being repaired and the demand for new ones has soared.

Colonies that were considering removal of power backups are now reviewing the plan.

Thirty four-year-old Prithi Chakraborthy, a resident of west Delhi’s Uttam Nagar, had sold her inverter a year back after the city started experiencing minimal outages. On Saturday, after over six hours of power cut, she went to get a new inverter on Sunday.

“For the longest time we did not need the inverter here. There were barely any power cuts, and if once in a blue moon if the electricity supply was out, it was restored within 10-15 minutes. Over the last few days, however, we have been experiencing power outages lasting for as long as eight hours. This added to the heat had made it impossible to survive. So, we finally decided to get an inverter,” she said.

After privatisation of power in 2002, the number and duration of outages had come down if they did not stop altogether. Many say it’s the first time after years that they have experienced prolonged power cuts in their areas.

Raghuveer Chaturvedi, a resident of south Delhi’s CR Park, experienced a similar situation.

“In my four years of stay in Delhi, never have we felt the need to get any power backup. Apart from a few instances, which were also due to local problems, our colony has never experienced such long cuts,” he said.

In many private colonies in Dwarka, resident welfare associations (RWAs) said that people who were hesitating in paying the charges for power backups have now realised its importance.

“In our society many people had demanded that the maintenances charges be reduced and ‘unnecessary’ charges such as for power backup be scraped considering negligible cuts. After the last few days, we are sure such demands will no longer be raised. We can never predict how Delhi’s power situation might affect us,” said Jagjeevan Society secretary Narendra Kumar.