Calcutta, April 26: The power situation across the state continued to be grim with the combined shortfall in the CESC and state electricity board areas rising to 470 mw this evening.

Several districts suffered prolonged blackouts as the deficit in the state electricity board areas rose to 340 mw.

Calcutta and its neighbourhood experienced power cuts ranging from 45 minutes to over an hour as the shortfall in the CESC areas reached 130 mw in the evening peak hours. The state board imposed a restrictions on its supply to the CESC.

Power minister Mrinal Banerjee said the government will purchase power at higher rates from other sources to tide over the crisis. ?We will incur a loss of Rs 2 crore every day by buying electricity at higher rates,? he said.

Power cuts during the evening peak hours will continue over the next few days because of inadequate supply from the central power plants, Banerjee added.

The minister said Bengal is supposed to get about 1,200 mw from the central sector daily but, for the past few days, it has not been receiving more than 347 mw on an average.

?We are already purchasing 25 mw from Tripura and we are also planning to purchase some power from the captive unit of Haldia Petrochemicals,? said Banerjee.

The situation has been compounded by boro farmers who require about 350 mw to run pump-sets, Banerjee said. The farmers have been asked not to operate the pumps between 6 pm and 10 pm.