The city has been reeling under pathetic electricity supply for the last two days making everything dependent on it go haywire and causing unimaginable discomfort to people in the hot summer.
The situation although is heading towards normal – as claimed by the officials -- after 48 hours of uneven supply but not without leaving behind trail of horrific experiences.
For those who waited for the weekend to relax and go into hiding from blazing Sun found their houses engulfed by the sun blaze caused by 39 degrees temperature outside.
Erratic power supply throughout Sunday and for the most part on Monday exposed the overdependence on outside supply for the city’s electricity needs.
“You can imagine one cannot run an air-conditioner because of no power supply for the entire day. It just became a show piece hanging on the wall in the absence of electricity,” said Rakesh Jain, a resident of Morhabadi.
The city received only half of its requirement of electricity on Sunday. Breakdowns in transmission network at Patratu and Biharsharif reduced supply to 577 MW on Sunday against the requirement of 1100 MW of electricity per day.
The breakdown led to shutdown of operations of two units at Tenughat Vidyut Nigam ltd (TVNl) while load shedding took its toll on the entire supply chain.
Apart from TVNl city’s electricity needs are fulfilled from two units of Patratu Thermal Power Station (PTPS), Adhunik Power, DVC and Central pool.
Significantly, officials of the electricity department assured smooth supply of electricity from Monday night and confirmed receiving green signal from their counterparts in Bihar about beginning operations at TVNl’s remaining unit. A press communiqué from the department confirmed that the state would get uninterrupted power supply.
“Operations at other unit of TVNl will start from night and with that supply will be restored to most part of the city,” said Public Relations Officer, Pandey Rami Kant Sinha.
Incidentally, two grids of Ranchi -- Hatia, Namkum —received less supply that caused electricity play cat and mouse even on Monday. The problem aggravated during peak hours on Sunday as well as Monday.