Ranchi, Jan. 16: The capital?s nerves are frayed. Continuous load-shedding for the past four days has taken its toll on residents.

Ranchi, unaffected by the general power shortage in the state, is reeling under an acute power crisis. Electricity has eluded certain areas of the state capital like Bariatu and Namkum on an average of three to four hours everyday.

Some areas like Piska More, Doranda and New Madhukum have been facing power cuts for an average of four to six hours.

Some pockets have gone without electricity for days on an end.

People?s anger poured on to the streets yesterday when residents of a colony located in the HEC watertank picketed the electricity office in their area and roughed up the executive engineer posted there.

Electricity was not being supplied to the area in the absence of a transformer for the past 15 days.

The situation is grim in the districts of other divisions of the state.

Districts like Godda, Sahebganj and Latehar have been facing powercuts for 8 to 10 hours everyday over the past week. This continues as power authorities are not being able to manage the amount of electricity required to fulfil the state?s demands.

Technical snags in transmission lines and maintenance works also played a substantial role in the highly erratic power supply.

The main reason behind the grim power supply scenario is that the Sikidri hydel power plant has not been generating electricity in accordance with its capacity for the past fortnight.

Water level has considerably receded in Getalsud ? the dam from which the plant draws water for electricity generation purpose. Since the dam also supplies drinking water to Ranchi and Sikidri township, authorities have been saving it for future use.

The plant with two units and a production capacity of 110 MWs has been generating an average of 50 MWs for the past to weeks. The hydel plant authorities are avoiding running both the units together to minimise water usage.

This is expected to continue till late July. That?s when the water level in the dam will be back to normal, a fortnight after the monsoon breaks in the state.