Hyderabad: Locals lose cool over lack of FOC centre

Rajendranagar: While the summer season brings the load shedding issue back, the lack of Fuse Off Call (FOC) centre at Mailardevpally section in Rajendranagar is leading to recurrent incidents of altercations between the TSSPDCL officials and the locals, who are losing their cool over no response to their calls pertaining to blowing off of fuses in localities time and again.

In January 2019, TSSPDCL bifurcated the Katedan section and formed the Mailardevpally section to maintain uninterrupted power supply to consumers and serve them in a more transparent way. Though all the bordering areas such as Gagan Pahad, Katedan, Miralam and Chandrayangutta have their own Fuse off Call centres, the Mailardevpally lacks such a facility and for the last three years, this has been leading to altercations between the staff and the locals.

Though the Mailardevpally operational section comes under the Greater Hyderabad limit, it is geographically located far off from the predominant Katedan section making it harder for the TSSPDCL staff to attend the 'fuse off' calls received from people in a short span. According to official statistics, the Mailardevpally operational section alone carries a total number of 18,753 connections that include 18,103 low tension and 650 high tension services. The necessity of an FOC centre holds the key to maintain uninterrupted power supply to consumers.

Locals, who are facing hardships, had in August last year submitted a representation to Superintending Engineer, TSSPDCL and Chief General Manager, Operations, Rangareddy district seeking setting up of an FOC centre at Mailardevpally section, but of no avail.

"Almost every second day the people are facing fuse off issues in areas especially Shastripuram, Kings Colony and surrounding habitations. Repeated calls to toll free numbers and officials concerned are yielding no results. Though a representation was made a year ago for setting up of FOC centre in the area, no measures have been taken so far to provide relief to consumers," rued Syed Shoukat Ali, a senior resident of Shastripuram area.