With temperature soaring above 40 degrees, the frequent power cuts have added to the woes of people living in south Delhi’s Freedom Fighter Colony in East of Kailash and Sangam Vihar in South east Delhi. Residents in some localities have even complained of power cuts lasting up to five hours at a stretch. People living in NCR, including Noida and Ghaziabad, have also complained of frequent power cuts, making lives difficult in the sweltering heat.
Swati, an IIT student and a resident of Freedom Fighter Enclave, said that there was a five-hour-long cut in her locality on Sunday morning. “Power cuts are frequent these days. On Friday night as well, there was a power cut for around four to five hours. Apart from that, erratic power outages for 15-20 minutes are common. Overall, I would say there was more than 20 hours of power outage in the colony over the last one week,” she said.
A BSES official said that the power outages are due to the increased load. “Due to the summer, the electricity load has increased but the infrastructure is still the same. So there are frequent breakdowns which take some time to get fixed,” he said, while candidly admitting that the situation may remain the same in near future until upgradation of existing infrastructure is done.
Babita Kumari, a resident of Sangam Vihar, said that there was a power outage for around three hours in her locality around midnight on Saturday.
Abhishek Katiyar, a resident of East of Kailash, said that it gets difficult to manage even the routine work when there are frequent power cuts. “Most of the area where I live is congested and there is no air or sunlight. So without electricity, everything stops for a few hours,” he said.
Complaints of power outages are also common in nearby satellite towns of Noida and Ghaziabad. Rohit Sharma, who lives in Supertech Capetown in Sector 74 in Noida, complains of regular outages in the society. “Even home appliances are getting fused due to heavy load shedding and voltage fluctuation. My refrigerator is damaged due to high voltage and fluctuation,” he said.
Shailesh Kumar, a resident of Ghaziabad, adds, “There are so many power cuts in Ghaziabad that it is very difficult to manage things. There are power cuts in the night which makes it difficult to sleep. Then there are power cuts early in the morning for an hour to two when it is time to get ready for work. This is followed by time to time cuts for 10-15 minutes, and even up to an hour. Inverters don’t work as they don’t get recharge time due to this.”