Much before the summer could accelerate to second gear the Capital City dwellers have started facing power cuts up to one-fourth of the day in many parts of city. Citizens bearing declared power cuts on the occasion of Sarhul and Ramnavami during last one week did find no reason to feel ‘powerless’ hours on Thursday, Friday and Saturday despite government officials claiming that there was no demand-supply issue.
“It is not due to demand supply issue. Jharkhand is connected to the national grid, and we can purchase power from it at the moment we come across added demand. The real issue is with the distribution. I believe that once Namkom grid gets connected through multiple lines with Hatia grid which is single line now not allowing us to put extra load on it, we will have no power cut issue anymore in major part of the city,” said JUVNl Managing Director Rahul Purwar.
He also added that distribution, maintenance and replacement of transformers like works would keep officials on the toes to provide uninterrupted power supply in summers. “We are connected with national grid now and in position to ask for additional power supply the moment there is some requirement like that. But the power cut hours are going to remain there until we are fully equipped at distribution and maintenance like issues, which are prime reasons of power cut,” said Purwar.
The city faced tremendous power supply issues due to maintenance and renovation works of transmission during last summer. “This year we expect not to have any major issue that affects the city as a whole. However, area-specific issues may exist, which we will try to rectify at the earliest,” said a JVVNl official. He also said that the city still suffered with illegal power connection issues in certain areas, which posed considerable amount of threat of power cuts during summers. Notably, Chief Minister Raghubar Das has already announced that the the Capital City was going to become solar city by the year end, leaving no room for power cuts.