Power restored to Dwarka e-way societies after 61 hrs

Gurugram: Residents of 22 societies along the Dwarka expressway in Gurugram breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday night after electricity was finally restored to their homes at 9.19pm — nearly 61 hours after the power outage was first reported.

Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (HVPN) officials said the outage was a result of a fire at a 220kV substation in Sector 107 at around 8.30am on Sunday, and the subsequent blackout also hit water supplies and security systems, affecting around 10,000 families.

What complicated matters, officials said, was that the fire caused extensive damage to 32 gas insulated switchgear (GIS) boards, 16 of which were completely destroyed. The remaining boards, after initial testing and rectifications, were found functional but encountered gas leakage issues.

The outage prompted Haryana minister Rao Narbir Singh to direct senior Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) officials to treat the repairs as a top priority.

On Tuesday night, HVPN division executive engineer (Gurugram) Anil Malik said they restored power to the GIS boards by 5.15pm after sealing all leakages and refilling the gas.

“We waited for some time, as per protocol, so that the 33kV supply continues to hold. We then gave the nod to Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (DHBNV) officials to turn on the power supply to consumers,” Malik said, adding that HVPN will continue to monitor the system for the next several days.

DHBVN executive engineer (Gurugram city division Circle-I) Manoj Kumar said power supply to all affected areas was restored in a phased manner by 9.19pm. “We have kept our ground teams on alert so that in case of any issue, they could be scrambled immediately,” he said.

Malik said spare sealing covers from the burned panel were salvaged and repurposed to fix leaks, but warned that the new replacement panel could take up to three months to arrive.

Residents bat for private discoms

Earlier on Tuesday, minister Singh directed that the repairs to the GIS board be treated as a top priority, and ensure all alternate power supply measures are activated to mitigate the hardships of affected residents. He also ordered a detailed investigation into the cause of the fire.

“The restoration process must be expedited, and all possible alternative routes should be activated to provide relief to the residents until full power supply is restored,” he said in a statement.

Several residents alleged that the authorities acted only after high-level intervention.

“The power department only swung into action after the cabinet minister asked them to provide immediate relief. Why should residents have to suffer for so long before authorities take notice?” Piyush Verma of Sobha City said.

They also called for private discoms to be introduced in Gurugram’s power infrastructure, similar to Delhi.

“The power infrastructure in Gurugram is failing time and again. If Delhi can be managed efficiently by BSES and Tata, why can’t we have the same here? We never hear of such long and frequent outages in the Capital,” Sunil Sareen, a resident of Imperial Garden in Sector 102 and deputy convenor of the Dwarka Expressway Group Development Authority, said.

Sikha Parihar, a resident of Adani Oyster Greens in Sector 102, added, “Had there been private players here like in Delhi, such a situation would not have occurred. Even in case of fires, they would have worked on war footing to restore the power supply at the earliest.”