BENGALURU:The number of unresolved complaints lodged with Bescom has increased by over eight times in the month of April, owing to frequent power cuts across the city. As per Bescom’s website, currently, the number of pending complaints is 3,100.In March, the number was 272, which is less than eight times the number now. The total number of complaints lodged since July 2017 has almost touched two lakh, with over 40,000 of them being lodged this month alone.
Many areas in the city have been reeling with power cuts, especially during rainfall. Although it rained only for brief durations, sometimes, there was no electricity for hours. Following heavy showers on Tuesday afternoon, several areas in the north and west of the city did not have power for almost 24 hours. This has resulted in a spike in the number of complaints, officials said.
Director (Technical) of Bescom, K Siddaraju, said the reason for the power cuts is not the rain itself, but the heavy winds which usually accompany the rain. “This month, we had to replace over 130 fallen electric poles in a single day, and each pole supplies power to 3-4 homes. Often, due to the winds, trees fall on poles and uproot them,” he said. He added that most poles had fallen in the western and central parts of the city.
With rainfall being the primary reason for power cuts, Bengalureans can only expect things to get worse during the monsoon. Siddaraju said the civic body can only take precautions by stocking up on whatever equipment would be needed.A solution which would prevent power cuts during rainfall is to lay the wires underground, and Siddaraju said there is a proposal for the same with the Karnataka government.
N Jayanthi, General Manager (customer relations) of Bescom, said another major reason for the spike in complaints was the increased consumption due to warmer weather.“Transformers get overloaded, flashovers occur and there are other technical problems. Sometimes, trees bring down feeders with them, and as a precaution, we have to cut off the power, so that no one gets electrocuted.Most number of complaints have been lodged from the South circle. Jayanthi said this is caused by a shortage of the number of KPTCL (Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited) stations.