Palam Vihar outage exposes poor summer preparedness of power discom and DTCP

The two-day-long power cut witnessed after a blast in the 400 kilovolt (kV) transformer on Sunday evening in Palam Vihar once again has exposed poor preparedness of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), town and country planning (TCP) department and Haryana Urban Local Bodies to address the problem of inadequate power infrastructure in private colonies.

According to an executive of Pro-Facility Service Private Limited (Profac), which maintains Palam Vihar, 30,000-35,000 people live in this township developed by Ansal API in 1990s. “About 6,500 plots were developed by the builder and 30% are still unoccupied,” said a Profac employee, requesting anonymity.

Palam Vihar, Sushant Lok 1, South City 1 and 2, Ardee City, Malibu Towne, Sun City, Mayfield Garden and other private areas continue to suffer long power cuts in summer.

“There are 6,700 plots in Sushant Lok 1 and nearly 40,000 people live here. We have been requesting for 20 new transformers for five years because existing transformers are overloaded and get damaged frequently,” said Vishnu Khanna, a resident.

Power distribution agency DHBVN had prepared details of deficient infrastructure in 16 private colonies in 2013 and submitted them to state TCP director general to expedite recovery of amount required from builders.

According to the DHBVN report, Unitech Group (developer of South City 1 and 2), Ansal API (developer of Sushant Lok 1 and Palam Vihar) are the biggest defaulters. “Unitech Group owes ₹200 crore in terms of deficient electricity infrastructure and Ansal API owes ₹180 crore. Mayfield Garden owes ₹85 crore, while Malibu Towne ₹58 crore,” said the report.

Under pressure from the city residents who in March last year had raised this issue with chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in a meeting in Gurugram, KM Pandurang, director general TCP Haryana, had called a meeting of representatives of various RWAs, builders and DHBVN officials on May 15 last year at Gymkhana Club, Sector 29.

“There is no progress in this regard after the meeting with the DG-TCP. Seeing no progress and fed up with the builder, RWA of Ardee City applied with DHBVN for direct electricity connection at their own expense. Ardee City developer owed ₹21 crore. The residents decided to bear ₹7 crore on their own just to get rid of the mess and we provided them direct connection. However, other RWAs have not come forward with this model,” said a DHBVN official familiar with the matter. The situation in Palam Vihar, Sushant Lok and South City deteriorated after DG-TCP announced transfer of these colonies from builders to Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG). After this, many residents stopped paying monthly maintenance to RWAs or agency responsible for day-to-day maintenance.

“The town and country planning department has failed to recover amount required for upgrading the deficient electricity infrastructure from the builders,” said SN Bharadwaj, president of South City 2 RWA.

When asked about the issue, Pandurang said, “We are looking into the matter and trying to find a solution.”

As per DHBVN, the city reported damage of nearly 200 transformers in last summer.

“We are definitely looking into problems related to power distribution and soon improvement will be visible,” said TC Gupta, additional chief secretary (power), Haryana.