Gurugram reels due to power outages as mercury soars

Residents of several sectors across the city complained of frequent power failures and low voltage for the past couple of days. The outage was primarily reported from Sushant Lok-1, 2 and 3 and Palam Vihar, and saw residents complaining repeatedly to the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) officials on social media platforms about the erratic power supply, the crumbling infrastructure and the fluctuating voltage.

“We have been facing power cuts of 8-9 hours at a stretch. Even if it is back, the supply lasts for only 30 minutes,” said Joginder Singh, a 35-year-old resident of Sector 57. With no assurances from the authorities on when the power will be back, residents continued to languish in the heat, with the city’s maximum temperature being recorded at 45 degree Celsius. Some complained that even their power back-ups ran out of power due to the long duration of cuts.

“The present infrastructure cannot handle the fluctuating voltage. This is why sparks are forming and transformers are breaking down,” said the vice president of Sushant Lok-1 residents’ welfare association, Sanjay Bakshi. He said that supply was resumed for 10 minutes before it went off for two more hours. Repeated complaints to the discom officials resulted in inconclusive replies, such as lack of power supply and repair work being in progress.

Crippling infrastructure, incapable of bearing the peak power demand during the summer months, saw residents taking matters into their own hands. Caught between a blame game involving the DHBVN, the MCG and the developers for fixing responsibility of the infrastructure, the residents of Sushant Lok-1 pooled in money to repair their transformer that recently burnt down. Sudhir Sachdeva, a 46-year-old resident said, “When we asked the authorities about repairing the transformer, they said either we have to do it ourselves or request the developer to do so,” he said.

“The faults are happening at micro levels. There is no mass power failure. We are constantly sending our teams to identify and rectify these faults. It is all primarily happening due peak demand during the summers,” said KC Agarwal, superintending engineer, DHBVN.