MADURAI: With mercury touching new highs everyday, several parts of the city including Kalavasal, Palaganatham, K Pudur, Teppam are experiencing frequent power disruptions.
Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Ltd (TNPDCL) attribute this to increase in use of electrical appliances which causes tripping of feeders and not carrying out maintenance work due to board exams and Assembly elections. On Thursday, the temperature in Madurai was 40 °C
According to sources in TNPDCL, routine maintenance of equipment such as transformers, power lines, and feeders was not carried out in the last two-three months in order to ensure uninterrupted power supply during the public examinations and in the run up to assembly elections.
Speaking to TNIE, a top official from TNPDCL (Madurai) said,”Routine maintenance is conducted to minimise the risk of explosion, fire, and hazardous electrical malfunction, and to ensure safety of both personnel and equipment. However, we postponed mass maintenance in order to avoid the associated power shutdown during exams and elections. Only minor and emergency maintenance work was carried out in March.”
She added,” Now, we have to ensure there is no power disruption in vote counting centres where EVMs and VVPATs are stored. After the results are declared and all election related work is completed, we will carry out full maintenance for transformers, power lines and feeders by enforcing total power shutdown. This will start after May 10.” According to sources, there are 19 sub stations in Madurai metro city circles, catering to 5.26 lakh domestic connections.