Gurgaon reels under 8-hour power cuts, officials cite maintenance work

Gurgaon residents alleged that local transmission lines are insufficient to bear the power load of the infrastructure, which results in a breakdown across the city.

The city has been reeling under long outages for the last two days. Officials of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (DHBVN), the power discom, said there will be outages this week due to maintenance work ahead of summer. The residents complained that there was no prior information about power cuts and it compounded their problems.

Unscheduled maintenance work caused an outage in DLF Phase 3, sectors 56, 56, 14,17 and parts of Old Gurgaon on Tuesday. (HT File)

An unscheduled maintenance work carried out by the DHBVN caused an outage of around eight hours in DLF Phase 3, sectors 56, 56, 14,17 and parts of Old Gurgaon on Tuesday. The situation remained the same in many areas on Wednesday.

“We should have been informed regarding the power cuts as residents were not aware and were not prepared. Many had to leave for office without ironed clothes and had to visit cyber cafés for official work,” Ajay Pandita of Valley View Estate on Gurgaon-Faridabad Road, said.

Prerna Singh of V-block in DLF Phase-3, said, “Power supply to DLF City phase-3 and phase-1 was cut off around 10am and resumed around 6pm on Tuesday. I had baked a cake but it got spoiled due to the power cut. I could not carry out other works either.”

Old Gurgaon, including Palam Vihar, have been experiencing a daily outage of two to three hours. A power outage of around four hours was reported on Wednesday from the nearby areas.

Residents alleged that the local transmission lines are insufficient to bear the load of the infrastructure, which results in a breakdown across the city.

“The government should focus on improving the infrastructure, which will in-turn improve the situation. We are facing power cuts in the beginning of summer. If it (power equipment) is not maintained well, there will be long power cuts,” Dhruv Bansal, a member of DLF Qutab Enclave RWA, said.

Sadhana Verma of Sector 57 said, “The sector is the worst affected area in the entire city. There are daily power cuts that last for more than four hours. Moreover, nobody responds to calls on the helpline number.”

Naveen Kumar Verma, the superintending engineer, DHBVN, said, “The power cuts are due to the maintenance work on transformers. Equipment in the powerhouses, supply lines and cables are to be checked. The work will be completed by Sunday. This summer, we are hopeful that residents will not suffer power cuts unless there is a technical fault, and we will receive fewer complaints.”