Patna, May 19: The residents of western parts of the city were left in the dark after the storm last evening snapped the power lines. The lights went off at 7.30pm and played truant for four hours.
The power pangs resurfaced this morning. Three-hour-long power cut hit several areas in the city around 8am.
The worst hit areas were Boring Road, SK Puri, SK Nagar, Anandpuri, AN College, New Patliputra, Alpana Market, Rajiv Nagar, AG Colony, Indrapuri, Mahesh Nagar, Patel Nagar, Kesri Nagar, Rajabazaar, Ashiyana Nagar, Excise Colony, Rajendra Nagar and Kankerbagh.
Rajiv Nagar resident Ajay Kumar said: “We could not sleep at night because of the power cut. Though it is a little cooler because of the storm and the rain, it was still uncomfortable.”
The civil service aspirant added: “The power cut also affected my examination preparation.”
Sources said residents had to suffer the power cuts despite the fact that Patna received 420MW of power from the central sector today. The state capital has been somewhat insulated from the power woes that have afflicted the state.
Schoolchildren, however, were spared the trouble of attending classes after a sleepless night, courtesy the ongoing summer vacations.
“Thankfully the schools are closed. Had the schools been open, the children would have faced a lot of trouble,” said Indrapuri resident Poonam Singh.
She added: “It would be difficult to send them to school without a sound sleep at night.”
S.K. Srivastava, superintending engineer (west), Patna Electric Supply Undertaking, told The Telegraph: “The power supply was hampered in the city for hours because a number of power supply lines in west Patna snapped in the storm. It took us some time to find the faults. We restored the supply in some areas by 11pm, and in the rest by 1am.”
He also said: “There was a technical snag in the Khagaul grid sub-station and the storm disturbed the supply lines at the Khagaul feeder. A tree fell on the supply lines at the Canal feeder. This resulted in complete blackout in various parts of west Patna.”
