BARGARH: As if the grueling heat wasn’t enough, people in western Odisha districts of Bargarh and Sambalpur district face woes of frequent power outages and voltage fluctuation making their lives miserable.
Its temperature stuck above 40 degree Celsius since last more than 10 days, Bargarh is one among the districts facing a staggering heatwave. The soaring mercury may have restricted movement and compelled people to stay indoors but there’s little respite in their homes too due to irregular power supply.
Locals say, Bargarh town residents face power outages of 2-3 hours a day while earlier it was limited to an hour mostly. The problem doesn’t end there. Even after power cuts, residents claim, there is drastic voltage fluctuation most times during the day due to which appliances or lights and fans cannot be operated.
The problems are reported in several localities including Talipada, Mohantypada, Hatpada, Gourpada, Bandurtikra, Khajurtikra and Bhatli road.
Not just households, but business owners too suffer due to voltage fluctuations. A general store owner in the town, Damodara Pradhan said, “The goods I store in my refrigerators and deep freezers are always at a risk of perishing because of a power outage. Often, customers go back when they find something is not cold enough. The voltage problem has damaged my deep freezers twice this season.”
Earlier this month, the Bargarh Bar Association (BBA) held a meeting with Tata Power Western Odisha Distribution Limited (TPWODL) officials in this regard. BBA secretary Harihar Pradhan attributed the major reason to the lack of timely maintenance. The maintenance work which should have ideally started before the onset of summer, he said, is being carried out now when systems are already overloaded. Moreover, the power supply infrastructure in Bargarh needs an overhaul but power authorities are heedless about it.
“We discussed genuine problems consumers are facing. If the discom staff are quick enough to collect bills at doorsteps, why is nobody taking responsibility when there is a complaint??” Pradhan asked.
Executive engineer of Bargarh Division termed them scheduled power cuts on outskirts like Bhatli and Ambabhona besides the rural area of Bargarh because the existing grid near Pradhanpali is receiving a load of more than 40MW against its capacity of 30MW.
“Installation of a new grid is going on near Chorgrindola hopefully should solve the problem. Power supply will be stable by May second week,” he said. He, however, denied claims of power cuts in the town area. On the other hand, in Sambalpur, scheduled power cuts are not frequent anymore but residents of areas including Jhaduapada, Modipada, Bada Bazar, Bareipali and Khetrajpur continue to face voltage fluctuations several times a day.
Head of Corporate Communications, TPWODL, Manoj Pattnayak said, “We are working on the complaints and have cut down planned outage before the summers. There are certain technical faults that occur unprecedented. Our call centres are operating and we have also strengthened our maintenance staff force.”