Short supply leads to power crisis in Jamshedpur 

Jamshedpur, March 9: Over two lakh residents living in the Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd (JBVNL)in the steel city are facing frequent power cuts for a prolonged period. Localities like Mango, Azadnagar, Birsanagar, Baridih, Govindpur, Parsudih remained without power since 9 am on a day when the city did incidentally reeled under blistering heat.

The situation arose due to short supply from the state load dispatch centre. The situation was equally grave in Chhota Govindpur, Ghorabandha and several other peripheral areas. There was no power from 9 am in places like Zakirnagar, Daiguttu, Dimna Road and the area around Payal Cinema and Post Office Road.

Residents of Chhota Govindpur and Ghorabandha near Telco also complained of a prolonged power cut since morning. “Both Golmuri and Gamharia power grid substations are getting inadequate power from state load dispatch and this is causing a power crisis,” said an official of JBVNL’s Singhbhum electricity supply area.

The Golmuri power grid station is currently getting a meagre 30MW against its requirement of 45MW, while the Gamharia grid substation, which supplies power to Adityapur industrial area and other residential areas, is getting around 80MW against its requirement of 130MW. Power also played hide-and-seek in Jugsalai, Adityapur and Sundernagar.

The  worst hit were Mango, Sundernagar, Parsudih, Govindpur, Adityapur and several other localities on the outskirts of the city. Residents complained they were being forced to deal with prolonged power cuts. “We had no electricity last night. Hot and humid temperatures have made life hell for us. The inverters also gave away after some time,” said Ashok Choudhary, a resident of Jugsalai.

Residents of Mango, which was getting about 20-hours of power supply, had to confront load shedding every two hours. The situation was no better in other JBVNL command areas which faced problems of erratic power supply , prolonged loadsheddings and voltage fluctuations. Blackouts greeted areas like Galudih and Mosabani.

Rajesh Singh, a resident of Jugsalai, said “It is very difficult to spend life in such conditions. Rising mercury and regular power cuts have made us miserable. We are unable to spend time in such rough weather. I am of the opinion that this is mainly due to the mismanagement and poor maintenance of the existing power stations and miserable failure to anticipate future requirements. It is high time for the electricity department to improve the situation”.