Phagwara without power for 25 hours
Ashok Kaura
Phagwara, July 16
Residents of several localities in Phagwara city today were forced to spend around 25 hours without electricity. Residents alleged the power tripped around 12.30 pm on Friday and could only be restored around 1:45 pm today.
Fault rectified
A major fault at 132-KV sub-station on Banga Road forced us to cut the power supply. However, the normal supply was restored on Saturday afternoon. Rajinder Singh, XEN, Phagwara
They complained that the outage affected the water supply in their locality. Inverters installed in houses and shops also stopped working. Exasperated, People were left with no other option but to wait for the resumption of power supply.
The power complaint centre was also flooded with inquiry calls by consumers. People alleged they did not get a proper response from the complaint centre. Despite making numerous calls to the complaint centre, they failed to get a satisfactory reply.
XEN, Phagwara, Rajinder Singh said a major fault in ‘Busbar’, a technical instrument installed in 132 KV Sub Station on the Banga Road, forced the PSPCL staff to cut the power supply as no alternative could be used. He said a large team of the protection and maintenance wing of the department put all their efforts to repair the instrument and complete normal power supply could be resumed Saturday afternoon.
The XEN said he himself made a few arrangements to arrange power supply from other feeders shift wise to make residents comfortable for few hours even. The residents said the power cut threw the normal life out of gear. No work could be done for the period there was no electricity.
They said: “With the rising temperature, it turned out to be a nightmare for us as standby arrangements like inverters also gave up. People had to bear the scorching heat throughout the day. The evening water supply was also disrupted.”A homemaker said: “It was a bad start to the day with neither power nor water in the house. The power outage affected the household work badly. Water taps also went dry.”
Rishi , a shopkeeper, said: “Business was affected due to the power outage. Our business runs mainly on computers, but batteries did not last after a few hours. Some residents said on other days too, unscheduled power cuts continued to make their lives miserable. Moreover, several residents have to spent the whole night in fear of increasing crimes also.
