Patna, April 15: Summer is here and people living in different district headquarters have started to feel the heat because of transformer burning that results in power tripping.

Residents in the districts, unlike their counterparts in the state capital, have a harrowing time, as the burnt transformers are not replaced within 24 hours in spite of chief minister Nitish Kumar’s stern directive.

While dedicating a 132/33KV Ekangarsarai grid sub-station to the public in Nalanda on Thursday, Nitish reiterated his commitment to replace burnt transformers within 24 hours and 72 hours in urban and rural areas respectively.

The chief minister’s directive seems to be working in the state capital, as the residents are lucky to get a replacement within 24 hours.

A transformer at New Jakkanpur that was burnt on the morning of April 12 was replaced the next day. However, in districts like Gaya, Motihari, Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur it takes three days to a fortnight to replace the burnt transformers.

“Non-availability of power supply does not affect our life at all. Our transformer which was burnt recently was replaced after 48 hours,” said Sudhir Kumar Singh, a Muzaffarpur resident.

Asked about the preparation of Bihar State Electricity Board to tackle the problem of transformer burning, spokesman H.R. Pandey told The Telegraph: “We have prepared a special work plan to tackle the problem. We have already replaced all the defective transformers in the urban areas and don’t have any such pending complaints right now. In the rural areas we have done a lot of exercise under which around 800 transformers have been replaced. We are putting efforts to achieve the target.”