Kasauli residents upset over unscheduled power outages

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, August 10

Unscheduled and frequent power cuts in the Kasauli area have become a cause of inconvenience to local residents. The growing hotel industry is burdening the existing power infrastructure, resulting in hardships for the residents.

With little augmentation of the power infrastructure in the last several decades, the overloaded lines often trip and cause power outages.

What has added to the problem of HP State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) is that a single line supplies power from Solan to the area through Dharampur.

Growing hospitality units to blame

• The Kasauli Planning Area comprising a stretch of 35 km has seen a substantial growth of hospitality units in the past two-and-a-half decades
• Coming up of more units will further strain the power lines in the area
• Around 50 new tourism projects are coming up on the Kasauli-Dharampur road
• Though two substations were proposed years ago, construction could not take place in the absence of adequate land

The Kasauli Planning Area comprising a stretch of 35 km has seen a substantial growth of hospitality units in the last two-and-a-half decades. Around 50 new tourism projects are coming up on the Kasauli-Dharampur road. A similar scenario prevails on Kimmughat-Chakki Mor, Chabbal- Garkhal, Kanda-Dharampur, Dharampur-Subathu roads.

This is despite the fact that the average occupancy of the hotels in the Kasauli planning area is 40 to 65 per cent for big and small hotels, respectively.

The hospitality units draw at least three mega volt ampere to four mega volt ampere power on a daily basis. Coming up of more units will further strain the power lines, informed an official of the HPSEBL. The corresponding enhancement of infrastructure, however, has not taken place.

Residents bear the brunt of power of cuts every now and then as the existing system has failed to cope up with the increasing power load.

Power is currently drawn from the 33 kv substation at Solan but since its conductor has been utilised to its optimal capacity, more power can’t be drawn. This has necessitated the need to set up a new substation at Dharampur. Though two substations of 66 KV and 33 KV capacity were proposed years ago, they could not be constructed because of absence of adequate land. At least 2 to 3 bigha land would be required to set up a 66 kv substation while 1 to 2 bigha land would be required for a 33 kv substation.

Vikas Gupta, Executive Engineer, HP State Electricity Board Limited, Parwanoo, said about two bigha chunk of land had been identified at Dharampur and its case for transfer was awaiting a Cabinet clearance. Land has also been identified at Parwanoo by the transmission wing for further enhancing the power infrastructure.

He added that a power line augmentation would be undertaken at Garkhal once the Dharampur-based substation is set up. This will ensure adequate power availability to the Kasauli area.

The project, however, being Centrally funded, would take about a year to commence after receipt of funds and completion of various formalities.