Prolonged power cuts may dampen festival spirits

Prolonged and frequent outages may play a spoilsport this festival season as the power scene has hardly improved even after summers are over.

Prolonged and frequent outages may play a spoilsport this festival season as the power scene has hardly improved even after summers are over. With 6-8 hours of shutdown a regular feature, residents are scared that it may dampen the festivities.

HT Image

However, electricity department officials deny the claims of residents and say outages are due to local faults. Repairing these faults is a time-taking affair, they say.

Residents of Sahibabad allege that the department has failed to provide proper supply, even though the festivals are round the corner. “The festivals are going to be tough for us. The demand increases during the festive season, but the power supply is erratic,” said Sushil Kumar of Mohan Nagar.

Residents added that even power backup systems like inverters were hardly providing relief to them as batteries did not get charged due to prolonged outages. “By 3am, inverters stop functioning as batteries are discharged. The department should come up with scheduled power cuts and work on improving the city's power infrastructure," said Tara Khanna of Lohiya Nagar.

Residents say even water supply gets hit due to prolonged outages. Moreover, the annual maintenance work at the Upper Ganga Canal will add to their woes as they will not get Ganga water for consumption from Monday.

“The outages hamper water supply. Many times, power trips when during water supply timings. The roster is never followed properly by the electricity department," said Pradeep Gupta, a resident of Shalimar Garden.

According to the electricity department, the city needs around 1,000MVA power, but it received only 750MVA during the summer. PK Maheshwari, chief engineer (distribution), could not be reached.