The problems faced by Dhanbad residents reeling under the impact of electricity crisis due to power cuts being carried out by Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) since December 23 has further increased from Wednesday. The Jharkhand Urja Sancharan Nigam Limited has started to further regulate the power supply from the 220 KV Kandra grid substation of Dhanbad.

The Maithon- Dumka Circuit of the Kandra Grid substation, used for drawing 60 megawatts of power from Dumka Grid, has undergone shutdown from Wednesday till January 14, restricting the power supply to 30 megawatts only.

A letter in this regard has already been issued by the manager of the Kandra Grid Substation to assistant engineers of the Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited at Govindpur, Barwaddah and Hirapur, informing them about the shut down and consequent lesser supply of power to their respective divisions from the Kandra Grid.

Confirming the reduction of power supply, Executive Engineer of the Dhanbad Electric Supply area of the Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam, Ajit Kumar said, “We have launched the power scheduling in view of shutdown of the Maithon Dumka Circuit.”

Power regulation is being carried out during the day hours,from 7 am to 4 pm, while it is normal during the evening and night hours, from 4 pm to 7 am, Kumar added.

The Kandra Grid Substation, installed and commissioned in 2019, has helped a lot in decreasing the dependence of Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam on DVC for power supply in Dhanbad. Out of 172 MW, around 60 MW is drawn from Kandra Grid station in Dhanbad.

Dhanbad, Govindpur and Barwaddah are the main beneficiaries under the new system and thus even during the power cuts carried out by DVC the supply in these subdivisions remain largely unaffected.

The shutdown carried out from Wednesday to January 14 for maintenance work however affected the power supply in Dhanbad, Barawaddah and Govindpur areas as well.

Talking to The Telegraph Online, patron of the Federation of Dhanbad Zila Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Rajesh Kumar Gupta, said, “The town area of Dhanbad largely remained unaffected due to the load shedding launched by the DVC since December 23 but the problem started from Wednesday. We can’t understand the timing of maintenance as it is coinciding with the DVC power cut.”

Sanjay Kumar, a Cyber café operator of Dhanbad said “Our entire business is dependent on regular electricity. Long hours of power cuts will adversely affect our business as we will have to incur extra cost on operating generators.”