Several areas of the State Capital are again into the grips of prolonged power cuts, which is officially claimed to be due to maintenance and new infrastructure coming up. Areas such as Namkum, Kanta Toli, Kokar, Lalpur, Upper Bazar, Kanke Road and Ratu Road felt hours of power cuts during morning and day time for last two days.

Many localities had to face hours of darkness on Sunday evening and night due to the maintenance exercise putting residents into great deal of difficulty and discomfort. Jharkhand Bijli Vitaran Nigam Limited (JBVNL) Managing Director Rahul Purwar said that the disruption is due to erection of new line.

“Namkum grid and power sub-station are being connected with new PGCIL transmission line, which would feed the grid with alternate power supply source. This is being done to improve the existing infrastructure and going on in different parts of the capital and other areas of the State at present.

We are ensuring speedy completion so that residents do not have to face much difficulty,” he said.

Officials of the JBVNL are of the view that larger part of Ranchi is undergoing renovation on the power front which includes new transmission lines, installation of transformers, underground cabling exercise, advanced metering system and putting circuit breakers etc.

“These works on several fronts are being taken up under the R-APDRP project, which is meant to upgrade power distribution and transmission infrastructure to the next level. The exercise was pending for decades in the State and that is why this is taking time. We are constantly monitoring the work and putting pressure on the agencies to accomplish the task as early as possible,” said an executive engineer of Namkum area.

The official also expressed hope that the works would be completed ahead of this summer when demand of power is greater. Besides Ranchi, areas like Santhal Pargana, Palamu, Garhwa, Chatra and Hazaribagh are also facing similar situation.

“Grid and power sub-station construction exercise is continuing in most parts of the State. We are going for scheduled power cuts in all these areas so that the work can be done along with least hardship to the people. It is good that in many parts of the State the work has reached in its last phase,” added Purwar.