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City reels under power crunch
THE CITY continues to battle power crunch with several areas plunging into darkness, due to poor availability of power across the State besides local faults.
THE CITY continues to battle power crunch with several areas plunging into darkness, due to poor availability of power across the State besides local faults.
The situation has turned grim for the past two weeks even before the summer set in, with excessive load especially during evening hours.
The burgeoning power demand in the scorching heat is already posing problems for the residents. Over dozens of localities including Allahpur, Civil Lines, Katra, Mumfordganj, Ashok Nagar , Muirabad, Kamla Nagar, Nayapurwa, Beli Colony and others plunged into darkness on Sunday evening following snag in 32 KVA line between Minto Park and Mayo Hall power station. Erratic power supply has affected other essential services like water and health.
Moreover non-attending of local faults specially during night hours is adding to the woes of citizens.
On Monday night at about 10 pm the power supply to two phases in Patrakar Colony and Ashok Nagar Extension was disrupted and could not be restored until afternoon on Tuesday which caused great inconvenience to residents specially children and sick in gruelling summer.
Had the faults been attended in night itself the harried citizens would have felt relieved.
The residents of Cooper Road in Civil Lines and of Malaviya Nagar in Chowk connected to Mohammad Ali Park sub-station complained of regular power cuts in evening and night hours daily. According to UPPCL sources, the power crisis in the State deepened owing to decline in thermal generation and increase in demand.
Concerned over the acute power shortage, the State Government has recently directed power utility officials to deal with the crisis by taking appropriate measures including checking electricity pilferage. Taking a note of the complaints about unscheduled power cuts received from different parts of the State, the Chief Minister himself has asked the officials to prepare a special work plan to check power thefts.
UPPCL sources said that against peak hour demand touching 7,000 mw in the state, the generation was pegged around 2,000 mw and despite the central import of about 3,000 mw, there was a gap of 2000 mw between demand and supply. The total installed capacity in Uttar Pradesh is about 3400 mw, thermal power being the main source. UPPCL officers told HT Allahabad Live on Tuesday that the situation was not likely to improve in the near future and people were destined to face acute power shortage this summer too.
