Disruption in power supply for two to three hours every day has become a routine affair in the hill State. Apart from the domestic consumers, the agriculture and industry sectors are also being affected by the continuing electricity outages in the hill State.
More so, as the industrialists have complained, shortage of electricity supply to industries for four to five hours daily have adversely affected industrial growth.
The electricity supply that went off around 3 pm on Thursday was restored in different parts of the Haldwani city including the Kaladhungi Road, Kushmkhera, the Gasgodam Road, the main Haldwnai city and adjacent areas only after 5 pm.The matter of concern is that the unscheduled power cuts and low voltage have also disrupted drinking water supply, particularly in the urban areas, which are by and large dependent on power- driven rinking water distribution system like tube-wells.
Apart from the industry and domestic sectors, farmers particularly in the Terai belt of Uttarakhand which is mostly irrigation fed area, are not less worried as they are also dependent on power driven tube-wells to meet their irrigation water requirements.
According to the figures provided by the Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCl), whereas net availability of power in Uttarakhand is presently around 30.80 million unit (mu) per day i.e. about 11.01 mu per day from domestic sources, about 13.84 mu per day from Central pool and rest about 5.95 mu per day from other sources, the demand for the power has gone up to 33.47 mu per day of late, showing a deficit of about 2.67 mu per day between demand and supply.
And to meet the shortfall between demand and availability of electricity, unscheduled power cuts are being imposed on domestic and commercial sectors on routine basis.Notably, demand for electricity from both the domestic and commercial sectors has constantly been more than 33 mu per day in the State for long.As the atmospheric temperature remains low during the winter season it is likely that the demand for electricity would go up during the peak hours in the time ahead.