The ransacked electric office at Tinikonia Bagicha in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, June 3: This monsoon, the city might have to grope in the dark as no measure has so far been taken to carry out general maintenance work of electric wires, transformers and sub-stations.

Residents of several city localities fear that this situation could spur frequent glitches in the power supply system during the rains, which is just a few weeks away.

Erratic power supply has already sparked protests in several areas here. While residents of Haripur, Pithapur, Ranihaat and Santa Sahi had yesterday gheraoed an electric sub-station at Dolamundai, Tinikonia Bagicha residents had also ransacked the local electric supply office protesting against power failure.

This is for the third time in the last one week that the people have vented their anger against frequent power cuts and problems associated with low-voltage electricity supply that is causing severe inconvenience in the sweltering heat.

On May 29, residents of Ranihaat had ransacked the office of the executive electrical engineer electrical of Cuttack city distribution division No.1 over irregular power supply.

“Though it did not rain, there was a power cut in our area from 7pm to 11.30pm yesterday. In other areas, however, power supply was restored immediately after the gusty winds had stopped,” said Dilip Prusty, a resident of Pithapur.

He also added that apart from showing no care towards doing general electric maintenance works before the monsoon, the power supply authorities also did not bother to cut the branches of several trees, which often result in power cuts in the event of a storm or a heavy rainfall.

“We have been suffering from frequent power cuts and low voltage especially during nights for the last couple of weeks. We cannot even sleep properly because of such irregular power supply,” said Keshav Sahu, a resident of Haripur. Sahu also said the staff at the electric supply office did not respond to their calls and often misbehaved with them if they call up the office to know the reason of power failures.

Power is supplied to Haripur, Dolamundai, Pithapur and Ranihaat from the Bidanasi grid via Badambadi sub-station.

Cuttack city requires 100 to 105MW of electricity during peak hours everyday. While the Bidanasi grid supplies about 85MW power, 16 MW is procured from the Cuttack grid.

An official of the Central Electricity Supply Utility (Cesu), however, said fluctuations in power transmission happened frequently as the power grids were receiving 50 to 60 per cent less system voltage than the required amount.

“There was an interruption in electricity supply at Pithapur, Haripur, Dolamundai and Tinikonia Bagicha areas as a branch of a tree had fallen on some electric cables. However, power supply was restored in the affected areas by midnight,” said Cesu executive engineer P.K. Lenka, adding that steps would be taken to do the general maintenance work and cut branches of trees on war footing before the monsoon.

But as the director of Regional Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar, Sarat Chandra Sahu, said pre-monsoon rain would hit the state by the second week of June, there remains a doubt whether the electric supply authorities, in association with the district administration and the civic body, would be able to finish the huge task within such a short time.