The residents of western Patna would have to bear with this summer’s first power pinch — triggered by a snag in transmission line — for at least four days.

There would be some temporary relief, though. A power company official said electricity would be supplied on rotation from alternative sources till the technical snag was rectified. The restoration process would take at least four days because it requires high technical expertise.

Vast areas of western Patna, housing upscale localities and vital government installations, went without power for hours since Sunday afternoon because of the technical snag in 132/33KV overhead line and 132KV underground cable, which feeds power to Digha grid sub-station. The transmission line supplies power from 220/132/33KV Khagaul grid sub-station to Digha grid, which in turn supplies electricity to several areas in western Patna.

The snag punched holes in Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Ltd (BSPHCL)’s tall claims on providing better and quality power supply to the people this summer. It also exposed the lack of expertise of Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu), which supplies power to the urban Patna, in handling large-scale snags.

BSPHCL, in a news release, said the Digha grid was operational but the 132/33KV overhead line and 132KV underground cable, which feeds power to Digha grid sub-station from Khagaul grid, got damaged, leading to severe power problem.

The company’s deputy general manager (public relations), H.R. Pandey, said the underground 132KV cable was damaged by a company engaged in the construction of a elevated highway in December last year and the second 132KV cable, the source from which power was being supplied, suddenly developed snag around 4.30pm on Sunday. These led to closure of power supply from Khagaul grid to Digha grid, triggering power disruption.

Pandey said the cable repair work had been started on a war footing and the experts of cable-joint work had arrived in the city.

Without or with little power, people had a tough time on Monday. “The power suddenly went off in the afternoon on Sunday. Thereafter, we are getting power for an hour after an interval of two hours,” said Pratibha Mishra, a resident of Ramnagri.

Poonam Singh of Indrapuri said: “The power cut spoilt our Sunday. On Monday, sending children to school without a sound sleep was difficult.”