Hyderabad: Erratic power cuts irk residents of Old City

Highlights:

♦    Residents have now tuned to social media platforms to raise their voice and complain about the issue

♦    Frustrated residents are questioning as to how technical and maintenance problems can come up at so many localities at the same time

♦    Power is been cut every three to four hours since the last couple of weeks

Hyderabad: Despite the government giving assurance that there will be no power cuts, erratic and unexpected power cuts in the name of maintenance issues is causing inconvenience to people across the Old City forcing them to spend hours without power. Residents have now tuned to social media platforms to raise their voice and complain about the issue.

Several areas particularly in the Old city including Shalibanda, Bahadurpura, Aliabad, Falaknuma, Chandrayangutta, Kishanbagh, Kalapather, Nawab Sahab Kunta, Santosh Nagar and other various areas are forced to live in dark due to frequent power cuts. "power is been cut every three to four hours since the last couple of weeks. We kindly request the TSSPDCL to solve the issue," tweeted Najeeb.

Monsoon power cut or post summer power cut in Hyderabad," tweeted Nymisha Reddy. "We are facing power cuts for more than two hours in Hyderabad, tagging KTR, K Srivardhan said do not give fake promises. Improper response from department too," he tweeted.

Frustrated residents are questioning as to how technical and maintenance problems can come up at so many localities at the same time. In Kishanbagh, we do not have power for two hours and we never know when it is going to be restored," said Vijay Rao, a resident of Kishanbagh, adding that "we have power cuts during the night too for two hours."

Mohammed Ahmed, vice-president of TDP Minority Cell said that various areas in Old city are facing four to five hours of power cut every day in intervals. Even during nights around 2 am to 4 am there is power shut down. "When the residents contacted the concerned officers there was no response and no officer was available at the FOC (fuse off call) office," he added.

He pointed out that for the last one to two there is no maintenance of substations and transformers due to lack of budget. "Erratic power supply is due to low maintenance.

Though no heavy rainfall was witnessed but whenever it rains, and wind blows there is fluctuation, frequent breakdown and long hours power cuts in various areas. This is due to lack of maintenance," said Ahmed.

No pre-monsoon works were done by the department. No cutting of branches for line clearance, and no maintenance in substation and transformers was done by the Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TSSPDCL). The power distribution infrastructure with lack of transformers is increasing the load and is not able to cater power witnessing frequent power breakdowns. There is no buget in the department to solve this issue," added Mohammed Ahmed.

However, the officials said there has been no major breakdown reported in the south zone area. There were only scheduled power cuts due to maintenance or other reasons, and the department will look into the problem.