Gurugram residents fed up with erratic power supply

GURUGRAM: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday announced slashing of power tariff in the state. For residents in Gurugram, however, it is not the cheap power but the need for developing proper infrastructure that is a major concern. At present, the rate of power in the city is Rs seven per unit. Various households in city have to shell out more than this as long power cuts have made them dependent on inverters and generators. The charges of the power supply through generators hovers between Rs 11 and 20 per unit.

Gurugram not only consumes the highest amount of power but is also a major revenue generator for the power departments that is bearing a

loss. A major complaint about many Gurugram residents has been the erratic power supply in their areas. Even now, most of the areas in the city are facing power cuts for more than four hours.

On their part, while DHBVN claims that this time it is not power-deficient but the problem is caused due to local problems like defects in the transformers. Another prob

lem that plagues the power sector in the city is huge amount of power theft. Recently, DHBVN stated that power theft that used to be at 14 per cent has been brought down to eight per cent that in turn is also reducing the losses of the state electricity board. Challenges of distributing the power through legal means are however faced by various DHBVN workers and linesmen.

During inspections last year, incidents of power thefts were caught from areas of police lines, the residential colony that houses officials of Gurugram police, DLF, Sushant Lok and Palam Vihar.

“This year, the situation of power is going to be much better than what it has been in previous years. A major reason for this has been our crackdown on power thefts that have yielded results,” said a senior official from DHBVN.

Last year, the DHBVN has set a target of 300 lakh units of consumption of power units in Gurugram this summer but the city has already surpassed it with the power consumption of 450 lakh units. With DHBVN once again not being able to meet the power demand, large parts of the city often face power cuts ranging from 6 to 8 hours during peak summer months.