No hope in Noida, Ghaziabad

Thanks to poor distribution infrastructure and no efforts by successive governments in Uttar Pradesh to improve power generation capacity, Noida and Ghaziabad are facing a serious power crisis. HT reports.

Thanks to poor distribution infrastructure and no efforts by successive governments in Uttar Pradesh to improve power generation capacity, Noida and Ghaziabad are facing a serious power crisis.

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Officially, Noida gets power supply for 22 hours a day while Ghaziabad gets it for 20 hours. But the situation on the ground is in complete contrast of the official claims.

Twelve to 14-hour power cuts are norm in Ghaziabad while Noida witnesses regular outages for at least eight hours daily.

"On Monday, the power demand was around 800 MW while the supply was 750 MW. We resorted to only two hours of load shedding. Rest of the disruptions may have occurred due to local faults," said CL Gupta, superintending engineer, Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited.

"In case of inadequate or delayed rains, power generation from hydel plants will further decline. Peak demand is expected to reach 850 MW in the next week," he added.

But it is not just the lack of power that mars the power scenario in the two important UP cities. The state-run power distribution company has done little to improve local infrastructure. Tripping and snapping of local transmission lines, over-heating and failure of transformers at the local sub-stations has become a regular feature.

Sweating it out in muggy weather, the residents have started venting out their anger on the local electricity department staff.

Both Noida and Ghaziabad have witnessed residents taking out rallies and pelting stones at local sub-stations.