The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Southern suburbs face power disruption

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 18, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Southern suburbs face power disruption

K. Manikandan and T. Madhavan

Fault at substation even as demand surges; angry residents pelt stones

ON THE JOB: TNEB personnel restoring the damaged underground cables on Thursday near Perungalathur. — Photo: A. Muralitharan

K. Manikandan and

T. Madhavan

TAMBARAM: Thousands of households in Tambaram and the suburban areas beyond it spent a sweltering and sleepless night on Wednesday following a major power disruption.

Tamil Nadu Electricity Board's sub-stations in Perungalathur and Guduvanchery were mobbed in the night.

A section of residents threw stones at the sub-station in Perungalathur near Tambaram, damaging glass windowpanes.

At the Perungalathur 33 kV sub station, problems began at 11.30 p.m., when power inflow stopped.

As the fault lay in underground cables running across the Grand Southern Trunk Road, the spot where the defect had occurred was identified only by Thursday noon.

Some 15,000 houses in Peerkankaranai, Perungalathur, Mudichur, West and East Tambaram and Selaiyur were hit.

Senior engineers of the TNEB said they diverted power supply to these areas from Madambakkam and Vandalur sub-stations from 2 a.m.

Around the same time, residents of Kamarajapuram and Krishnapuram assembled near the Guduvanchery sub-station protesting the frequent power cuts. Residents of Urapakkam complained of acute problems over the past two weeks.

Residents complained that not a day passed without power disruption. Several areas on the fringes of the city have suffered power cuts recently. These include west Velachery, Madipakkam, Nanganallur, Adambakkam, Medavakkam and Chitlapakkam.

Velachery resident Raji Cherian said power cuts ranging from 30 minutes to an hour happened five or six times a day.

M. Rajmohan, a resident of Chitlapakkam, said that when he contacted the TNEB's local office, officials pleaded their inability to meet the additional demand this summer.

Low voltage

V. Rama Rao, a residents' welfare association representative in Nanganallur, said: "We are unable to use any electronic equipment because of low voltage almost through the day." Voltage dipped from 180 volts to 140 volts a couple of days ago, he added.

A senior TNEB official attributed the disruption in supply to a burst in the Kadapperi 230 kV substation on Wednesday night. He claimed that power supply was restored by Thursday evening.

Steps were being taken to meet the additional demand during summer, the official added.

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