Chandigarh residents reel under frequent power cuts
Residents in several parts of the city continue to reel under frequent power cuts amid heatwave conditions.
Residents of Sector 30-B stated that there was no electricity supply in their area from 1 am to 3-30 am last night and during the day, they faced frequent power cuts. Elderly people and patients were at the receiving end of the long power outages, they said.
A similar situation was reported from Sectors 36, 48 and other parts of the city.
The residents alleged that the toll-free numbers to register complaints were of no use. The operators mostly do not pick up the calls made by complainants.
Meanwhile, officials of Chandigarh Power Distribution Limited (CPDL) stated that several old complaint numbers of 14 centres previously managed by the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), along with the Citizen Facilitation Centre (CFC) number, were discontinued before the company took over Chandigarh’s electricity supply operations.
Moreover, the contact numbers that were previously held by officials and staff of the Electricity Department, who have taken voluntary retirement or have been retained by the Chandigarh Administration, were not transferred to the CPDL. As a result, many residents continue to make calls at these numbers, leading to confusion and no response.
On frequent power cuts, the officials said that Chandigarh’s power infrastructure was under severe strain with electricity demand remaining unusually high — even during night hours. “This continuous overload is affecting the infrastructure, including underground cables and distribution transformers, beyond its limits, resulting in breakdowns across the city,” they added.
The power demand has spiked significantly and the system is stretched to its capacity. The consistently high demand has left no room for the infrastructure to cool down or recover.
“For the past few days, we have been managing an exceptional peak in electricity demand ever recorded in the city. On June 12, the demand was more than 400 MW. We have successfully managed this load without much constrains, except some underground cable faults due to overloading,” said CPDL Director Arun Kumar Verma.
The officials said the company was soon going to install four power transformers with a capacity of 20 MW each in a phased manner. Once fully operational, these transformers will significantly improve electricity supply. Besides five fault response teams (FRTs) deployed in four sub-divisions, the CPDL has also added more technical members to the existing staff to deal with faults more swiftly.
To improve customer service, the company will increase the number of call lines at its helpline (9240216666) from 20 to 50. Additionally, the number of customer service executives attending calls will also be increased.
Chandigarh