The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : An acute power crisis in southern suburbs

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Wednesday, Jun 20, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

An acute power crisis in southern suburbs

K. Manikandan

Summer’s over, what’s the problem, ask agitated residents

A NIGHTMARE: Frequent power cuts plague residents of southern suburbs of Chennai.

TAMBARAM: The southern suburbs of Chennai and areas beyond are still facing an acute shortage of power, say residents. A protest by residents of Chitlapakkam, near Tambaram, last week was an indication about the growing discontent, residents said. Earlier last month, a sub-station in Perungalathur near Tambaram was stoned by a violent mob.

None of the suburban areas of Chennai has been spared from power disruptions. Apart from residents spending sleepless nights, the daily activities of local body administrators has also been hampered. Due to overnight power supply disruptions, officials of some Municipalities and Town Panchayats are unable to pump Palar drinking water from Ground Level Service Reservoirs (sumps) to Overhead Water Tanks. The past weekend was particularly harsh on residents of Guduvanchery and Urapakkam. Problems started a little past midnight on Friday and the supply resumed only on Saturday morning.

After just half-an-hour of power supply, it was disconnected at 8.30 a.m. and restored only at 5.30 p.m. that day. Residents of Urapakkam and Adhanur said power supply was once again cut a little past midnight on Sunday and resumed in the morning. And till morning, there was power supply only for a couple of hours.

“Since Friday and till Monday, we had power supply for less than 12 hours,” said a frustrated Gopalan Ramesh, a resident of IHFD Quarters, Urapakkam. Similar is the plight of residents of Kamarajapuram, Nandivaramm, Krishnapuram and other areas of Guduvanchery, said B. Velu, district president of the youth wing of Pattali Makkal Katchi.

“The summer has peaked, but even now officials of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board are blaming the problems on over loading because of air-conditioners. How long can we tolerate this?,” Mr. Velu asked.

Residents of Rajkamal Street, Srinivasan Nagar, Perungalathur said their street alone was deprived of power supply for long periods.

They also said that neighbouring areas were spared the trouble and efforts to find out the reason from officials were futile.

Officials said almost the entire workforce of TNEB was working without a break. Overload, combined with crippled equipment were the root cause for the problems, they said and were hopeful of an improvement in the near future.

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