STRENGTHENING DISTRIBUTION: A power transformer at Tidel Park in Taramani which has been re-oriented and enhanced. — PHOTO: R. Shivaji Rao

CHENNAI: A four-year-long special drive to improve Chennai transmission and distribution network is coming to close, even as public demand for better services from the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board is growing daily.

Taken up as part of the Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP), conceived by the Centre, the drive saw the establishment of 26 sub-stations and installation of over 1,500 distribution transformers, besides laying of new lines and strengthening of the existing ones.

So far, the authorities invested about Rs. 350 crore for carrying out a number of schemes under the APDRP.

Official sources say that thanks to the APDRP, the quality of power supplied has gone up. The problem of voltage fluctuation has been effectively tackled. "We have ensured that supply problems in tail-end areas are overcome," says a senior official.

A dozen more sub-stations have to be constructed. All other components have almost been completed, the sources say.

Under the APDRP, the State was allotted various schemes costing Rs. 977 crore, of which a sum of Rs. 441 crore was set apart for Chennai. The reason for paying greater importance to the city was the increasing demand. Even though northern parts of the city have almost reached the point of saturation, southern and western parts of Chennai are seeing tremendous growth by way of construction of numerous multi-storeyed residential apartments and commercial complexes, in addition to a number of industrial units coming up on the outskirts. Sriperumbudur, Oragadam and Sholinganallur are among the areas that are witnessing the rapid growth.

Land problem

The major problem being experienced by the authorities is finding land for substations. "These days, we find it extremely difficult to get land even for putting up transmission towers," the official says.

In fact, the problem was so severe in areas such as Anna Nagar and Ashok Nagar that the authorities had to demolish the existing administrative office buildings to construct sub-stations. The problem is no less different in suburbs too.

East Coast Road, particularly in and around Mamallapuram, may be an "attractive destination" for many but the Board has not yet resolved the issue of setting up a sub-station. Velachery is yet another area where real estate boom is happening. But, the authorities are searching for months for a place to establish a substation in west Velachery. There are many more such instances wherein non-availability of land or land dispute has come in the way of providing more facilities, the officials say.

The authorities maintain that because of the improvement works, the failure of distribution transformers has almost been eliminated. Even the number of daily fault calls has come down to 340, whereas it was 455 last year.

Interruptions in the supply take place invariably due to damage caused by other agencies to power cables. To overcome this problem, dedicated ducts for power lines should be created as being done in the case of Information Technology corridor, the officials suggest.

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