Gurgaon: Residents along Golf Course suffer through unscheduled outage

Residents said the children and the elderly have been suffering the most

Many localities along the Golf Course road that include sectors 56, 54, 57 and the Golf Course Extension Road faced power outages on Friday night. The unscheduled outage started around 12.45am and there was no electricity till 6 am. The residents said the children and the elderly especially had a hard time making it through the night in the sweltering and stuffy weather.

Residents said power cuts have become a routine affair in their area and, despite paying the ‘highest rate for power’, they were left to suffer. (HT FILE PHOTO)

Many residents said invertors gave up after a while and they were left to sweat it through. A few days earlier too there was a long outage in this area, including Sushant Lok 2, Ardee City and sector 45.

“Such unscheduled power cuts in this searing heat cause a lot of trouble as children and senior citizens are not able to cope with the heat,” said Joginder Singh, former RWA president, Sector 57.

Power is supplied to this area by the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) but a snag in Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd (HVPN) powerhouse in Sector 52 had let to the cut last Tuesday.

Residents, meanwhile, said power cuts have become a routine affair in their area and, despite paying the ‘highest rate for power’, they were left to suffer. “For how long can we depend on diesel generators and invertors? The cost of power doubles when produced by gensets,” said VMK Singh, general secretary, RWA, Suncity.

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

The RWA representatives said they keep getting phone calls and visits from irate residents. “This situation is not in our hands, but in the peak summer, no one is ready to understand or listen. The government must improve the transmission system in the city so that this situation is resolved,” said Ish Kumar, a resident of Ardee city.

The people in the city also questioned the smart grid system that the DHBVN had launched with much fanfare but which has not made any positive impact on their lives. “Tall claims of boosting infrastructure were made but there is no result to show,” said Lt.Col (retd) Raghbir Singh, president of the Sector 56 Huda market association.

“We are trying to improve the system by controlling line loss that has appeared as the major challenge. Due to line loss, we have shortlisted areas where we carry out schedule power cuts. We have enough electricity to feed city,” Sanjiv Chopra, chief engineer, DHBVN, said.