After floods, pesky power cuts haunt City

Chief Engineer PDD assures supply improvement in coming days

Past September floods, frequent power cuts have been irking the inhabitants of this devastated City with electricity remaining off most of the times, the consumers said.

Electricity remains off most of the times though the Power Development Department (PDD) is yet to announce any curtailment plan for winters.
Damages to the PDD infrastructure in the floods is being seen as a major cause of the poor supply.

THE COMPLAINTS
Residents of areas like Batamaloo, Jawahar Nagar, Solina, Ram Bagh and Barzulla said the power supply remains off for around eight to ten hours a day. “Restoration of power supply has proved a cruel joke as power remains off most of the times,” said some Barzulla residents adding that their locality often  reels under darkness.
Similar complaints were voiced by consumers from areas like Pir Bagh, Humhama and Rawal Pora.
“Erratic power supply has hampered our daily life. We are even unable to wash clothes in washing machine as the electricity goes off anytime,” said Pir Bagh local.
Asif Akhoon of Azad Basti Nati Pora said the locality reels under darkness and has made the lives of inhabitants miserable.

FUEL ISSUES
Given the devastation caused by floods, the victims said they are unable to procure fuel stocks from open markets.
“Given the enormity of losses we suffered in floods, one is unable to spend on cooking gas. Power supply could have compensated this as one could at atleast prepare food in rice cooker. But every time we switch on the rice cooker, the food gets spoiled due to erratic power supply,” complained a flood victim from Jawahar Nagar locality.
Residents of some areas said the power supply was so poor that they are unable even to recharge their battery invertors. “For the past around a week my inverter is not working. Electrician blamed it on the poor power supply saying that the device has not been charged properly,” said a resident of Kani Pora.

THE IRONY
Consumers said the power supply was comparatively better in non-metered areas than metered localities. “As compared to non metered localities the supply has worsened in metered localities which should have been spared from the cuts,” said a south City local.
PDD SPEAKS
Chief Engineer Power Development Department Bashir Ahmed Khan admitted that the power supply remained affected in the past few weeks, past floods. “Post flood power restoration was mostly temporary through makeshift arrangements… Given the load, frequency of faults has increased,” Khan told Greater Kashmir.
Citing examples, he said Jawahar Nagar Receiving Station was being fed by Barzulla facility as the former was devastated by floods. “We are restoring the Jawahar Nagar station now.”
Khan said major transmission lines like the Pampore-Kani Pora-Khandah network was badly hit by floods and was yet to be made functional. “But supply is going to improve  in a few days.”
The Chief Engineer, however, clarified that: “Despite the challenging situation we have been ensuring round the clock power supply in areas where Muharram related events are held.”

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