The Hindu : New Delhi News : Power, water crisis hits Capital

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Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Power, water crisis hits Capital

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 23. The Capital was in the grip of a major power and water crisis today with North, North-West and South-West Delhi being the worst affected. The situation is likely to remain grim till the arrival of the monsoon, officials said.

Low frequency in the Northern Grid coupled with a number of local faults at the level of Delhi Transco and private discoms resulted in long hours of unscheduled load-shedding, while the water crisis was due to shortfall in supply of raw water from Haryana, the officials said.

With the water level in the Western Yamuna Canal decreasing fast, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) dispatched a team of senior officials to Sonepat in the morning to request release of raw water from Haryana. The Canal supplies raw water to the crucial Haiderpur and Nangloi water treatment plants.

A top DJB official said the treatment of water at these plants fell short by more than 60 MGD (million gallons per day). Though Haryana released 50 MGD this evening, officials said it would take at least 24 hours to reach the Capital. But the situation is likely to be the same till the rain arrives in the region. Among the areas hit by the crisis include West, parts of South, North and North-West Delhi.

Situation on the electricity front was no better either. Residents of several colonies such as Dwarka experienced power cuts for more than 10 hours at a stretch. The BSES said the discom had to resort to rotational load shedding across the Capital because of low frequency in the Northern Grid. The areas affected were Wazirabad, Khichripur, Matiala, Bindapur, Nangloi, Jafferpur, Bodella, Karawal Nagar, Ghonda, Seelampur, Kailash Nagar, Dwarka, Chaukhandi, Nand Nagri, Papan Kalan and G.T. Road.

Vidya Dharan, a resident of Kalka Co-operative Group Housing Society, Sector-VI, Dwarka, complained that load shedding in his area started at 11 a.m. and had not been restored till late in the night. "We have been told that this is due to a local fault. But there has been no effort to rectify it despite complaints," he said.

Further, due to the outage of transformer in the Patparganj area of East Delhi, residents of Preet Vihar, Shakarpur, Ganesh Nagar, Laxmi Nagar and Vikas Marg had to go without electricity for several hours, the BSES said.

Another discom, the North Delhi Power Limited said due to the tripping of 220 KV transmission line of the Delhi Transco, they had to resort to power cuts for six hours from 12-30 a.m. to 6-30 a.m. in Pitampura, Shalimar Bagh, Ashok Vihar, Wazirpur Industrial Area, Rani Bagh and the crucial Haiderpur Water Treatment Plant. In all the NDPL had to resort to a load-shedding between 50 and 100 MW today.

In a statement, the NDPL clarified that there was no problem in its network.

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