Containers in front of a tube well at Waseypur on Tuesday. Picture by Gautam Dey

Dhanbad, May 10: Residents of the coal town are in double distress with both electricity and water being in short supply for the past two days.

With the 150MW auto transformer at Chandrapura Thermal Power Station developing a technical snag and Damodar Valley Corporation’s (DVC) feeder centre at Putki breaking down, the entire district plunged into darkness for more than six hours — from 6pm to 12pm — on Sunday evening. The shortfall recorded was 30MW. Frequent power cuts, stretching up to 10 hours, ruled Monday as well. However, the situation, which was no different this morning, improved slightly in the afternoon.

Chief engineer of central load despatch section and system control division, DVC, Amitabh Nayak said although power generation had gone up recently, Sunday’s blackout was caused by a technical problem at the auto transformer at Chandrapura. “There was some fault at the DVC’s feeder centre in Putki as well, which caused the power cuts on Monday,” he added.

Officials of Jharkhand State Electricity Board attributed the problem to a snag in plug setting at the Putki feeder. “Though supply is normal from DVC’s end, overloading during summer is causing frequent trippings,” said an assistant engineer of JSEB, Subhash Kumar, adding that the department had planned to increase the duration of power cuts in the evening to tide over the crisis. “Instead of the normal duration of 60 minutes, we will now enforce power cuts for 90 minutes,” he said.

Dhanbad requires about 150MW of power during peak hours.

The prolonged power cuts affected supply of water to several areas like Jharia, Ghanudih, Bastacola, Lodna, Katras and Loyabad. Technical committee member of Mada Vinod Kumar said the loadsheddings affected pumping at the Jamadoba reservoir, which disrupted water supply in Jharia and other areas.

Expressing concern over the situation, spokesman of Federation of Dhanbad Zilla Chamber of Commerce and Industry Surendra Arora said: “It’s not possible for the shop keepers to maintain generators with the diesel price shooting up. Hence, business will suffer if the power situation does not improve.”