Kerala - Kochi   

Power disruption becomes the norm

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: Public unrest is brewing against frequent power disruptions in the city. It is reported that power goes off on most nights in many areas. Power shut downs happen during day as well.

Officials of the Kerala State Electricity Board say that power shut downs occur because of trees and hoardings falling onto electric lines, and because of routine pre-monsoon maintenance work.

Public outrage against the delay in restoring power supply had resulted in people attacking the KSEB office in Palarivattom, a few days ago. The supply was affected following heavy winds and rain.

Automation

Ernakulam executive engineer of the Board V.R. Sudhi denied that there was any unofficial load shedding. "Power cut is imposed only when there is insufficient power. Often, power in large areas had to be switched off to carry out repairs. It can be localised after the city-automation scheme is ready."

The scheme is aimed at converting overhead lines into underground cables. With most feeders having near-100 per cent load, it is difficult to switch over to a substitute feeder when power goes off.

Consumer calling the BSNL toll-free number 1912 often complain that there is no proper response.

A Board official said that there were only three persons to man the four incoming lines. One of them would be busy forwarding the calls to mobile units of the Trouble Call Monitoring System, he said.

"We can do better follow up action if details like post number, consumer number and telephone number of the complainant are correctly conveyed. Another hassle that we face is that none of the seven TCMS units in Kochi have a sub-engineer. They are now headed by linemen," he said.

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