Patna, Aug. 9: If waterlogging and traffic snarls were not enough, frequent power cuts in parts of western Patna ensured the day was difficult for a number of residents.

Alpana Market, Nehru Nagar, parts of Ashiana Nagar, Boring Canal Road and Boring Road witnessed power cuts for nearly four to five hours today because to local problems such as snapping of cables and transformer glitches.

Power in these areas went off around 8am and continued to play hide-and-seek till around 1pm. Boring Road, one of the busiest business centres in the city, witnessed traders using gensets to run their shops.

Officials of Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu), which supplies power to the capital, meanwhile, denied having any major power cuts in any area of the city.

When asked about the power failure in parts of the Western Patna, Pesu Superintending Engineer (West) S.K. Srivastava said: “We have not received any complaint that power has been snapped for hours. If there is any problem, it must be because of local glitches.” Alok Singh, a resident of Vaishnavi Plaza on Boring Road, said: “Power played hide-and-seek for more than a dozen times between 8am to 11am when we had to get ready for office and children had to go to school. The power cut also affected the water supply.” Raghunath Prasad, a resident of the same area, said: “The way power plays truant, it does not give us the feeling that we are residents of the capital. The government should address the issues on a priority basis.”

Vishwanath Prasad, an owner of gas stove shop at Boring Road, said: “First, we faced problems on account of incessant rains which badly affected the business. If that was not enough, power cut worsened our problems. We had to depend on gensets for alternative power arrangement.” Intermittent rains not only confined the residents to their homes but also led to burning of the transformers at some places. A board official admitted rain causes insulation failure resulting in burning of transformers.

Reena Singh, a resident of Vishwarya Nagar, Jagdeo Path, said: “It has been more than 24 hours since our transformer was burnt in heavy rain but the board officials have not done anything to repair it yet despite the chief minister’s directive to replace burnt transformers within 24 hours in town areas.”