NEW DELHI: There seems no relief in sight for Delhiites from the severe power crisis that has gripped the Capital for the past few weeks. An indication to this effect was given on Monday by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit who acknowledged that there was a "power crisis'' and added that it would take another 15 days for the situation to ease or normalise.

Emerging out of a Delhi Cabinet meeting, Ms. Dikshit said things were pretty bad on the power front and there was little the Government could do to tide over the crisis as the entire Northern Grid was facing a shortage of around 6,000 MW and Delhi was no exception. She said as a large number of power projects were not functioning or were out of action due to maintenance work or other factors, things had gone from bad to worse. "We have reviewed the situation and asked the private power distribution companies to intimate the timings of the power cuts and load-shedding to the consumers in advance so that they are prepared for it. People should also help the authorities by conserving energy by using electrical appliances judiciously,'' she added.

Ms. Dikshit said the 330MW Pragati power plant had come to a grinding halt due to non-availability of gas as floods in Gujarat had shut down the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) plants producing gas.

It would take another week or so for the plants to resume generation of gas. Similarly, the Badarpur power plant was also short by 210 MW due to maintenance of one of its units. On the other hand, Ms. Dikshit said high incidence of silt had badly affected generation at the 1500-MW Nathpa Jhakri power plant, which is yet to begin production. "Keeping all these factors in mind, it would take another fortnight or so for the power situation to get back to normal."

Ms. Dikshit said efforts to get more power from West Bengal had not borne fruit as the Uttar Pradesh Government had refused to make transmission lines available.

However, officials said it was all bad planning that was responsible for the mess.

They said it was wrong to state that even the hydro-power projects were not producing power in Himachal Pradesh. Only the Nathpa Jhakri power project is based on the run of the river technology and the rest of the projects are not affected by the incidence of silt. In fact, the monsoon rains have filled up the dams and they were producing power to their optimum level

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