City to face major power crisis

WITH MERCURY rising, power supply of the city has taken a nose dive setting the alarm bells ringing for the Kanpurites to be prepared for the worst ever power crisis in coming the days.

On an average, power supply of the city is being snapped for seven hours per day. While several areas of the city are facing power cuts for about ten hours. Power supply of the city is being snapped at 8.30 a.m. and then restored at around 12.30 to 1 p.m. While for night rostering power supply of the city is snapped at around 2 am and is restored at about 5.30 a.m.

Power supply to Sanigaon, Gyatri Nagar and Bhabha Nagar along with three other areas could not be restored even after seven days. These half a dozen areas are facing power crisis for the past seven days, as KESCo has not been able to replace the breaker of the 10-mva power transformer of HAL feeder. 
The breaker developed snag and went out of order last week.

According to KESCo officials the breaker could not be replaced due to obsolete nature. “The breaker which is being used at the HAL transformer is old and its replacement is proving to be daunting task for KESCo officials,” a senior KESCo official pointed out.

This power crisis has brought acute water crisis in these areas. As Jal Sansthan did not supply water to these areas, they are dependent on power supply to operate their jet pumps.  

Hundreds of enraged residents staged a demonstration at the Krishna Nagar substation in protest against the seven day-long power cut. It was only after AGM of the substation PK Verma assured people to restore power supply of the affected areas that the agitation was ended.

The transformer at Dadamia crossing continues to baffle KESCo officials. After commissioning of the transformer on Saturday after a gap of four days, a high-tension line fell over cable box of the transformer resulting short-circuit. In all, seven persons have died till date because of this transformer. The latest victim was a three-year-old girl Muskan.  The short-circuit led to wide spread resentment among the residents of Dadamai.

Apart from this, several areas faced power crisis due to overloading and tripping. Shastri Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Parade, Beconganj, Chamanganj, Gwaltoli, Harbansmohal and Railbazar along with other areas faced power crisis due to tripping.