Over two lakh residents living in the Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd (JBVNL) command areas of the steel city passed a restless night on Saturday due to power cuts.

Localities such as Mango, Azadnagar, Birsanagar, Baridih, Govindpur and Parsudih remained without power almost entirely from Saturday 10.30pm to Sunday 8am. Even on Sunday, power cuts were sporadic.

Moreover, the power cuts were experienced during a sweltering heat despite the fact almost all industrial units as well as commercial establishments are closed due to ongoing lockdown.

Subdivisional officer (electrical) Mango Amar Tushar Kashyap confirmed power cuts since late Saturday night due to supply crunch from the state load dispatch centre (SLDC) at Ranchi.

“The Kuwarn Singh substation at Mango got just 4MW of power against the normal supply of 12MW. Similarly, the Dimna substation got just 8MW in place of 20MW. Elsewhere in the JBVNL areas too, supply must have been less than demand,” said Kashyap.

Junior manager of SLDC Manish Kumar said power supply problems cropped up after the Tenughat Thermal Power Plant developed a major snag.

“The management of the Tenughat Thermal Power Plant has taken a shutdown for two days from Sunday for repairing the snag and normal power supply is expected to resume from Monday night,' Kumar told The Telegraph.

Residents were left fuming.

“This is nothing less than a nightmare as the steel city is feeling the heat of summer only now,” said Ashok Moitra, a resident of Parsudih. “I thought lines tripped because all air-conditioners were switched on together.”

Aftab Alam, a teacher in Azadnagar in Mango, said: “Power cut during lockdown? I did not expect this because factory units are shut and the load on the discom is less.”