MADURAI: Residents from several villages —whose power supply falls under the operational limits of Thiruvathavur substation — have alleged that frequent issues with undervoltage have severely affected the water supply to households, as a majority of them rely on borewells.
The power issue persists in villages such as Arasanampatti, Thiruvadhavur, Poonjuthi, Puthupatti, Meenakshipuram, Uluthuvanpatti, G Vellalapatti.
M Murugeswari, former Arasampatti panchayat president said, “The 910-odd families in the panchayat rely on borewells, with 3HP and 5HP capacity.
These must be operated for 10-12 hours every day for water supply and storage. But, these high-capacity pumps cannot be operated at low voltage, leading to water shortage. When operated at low voltage, the coils of the pumps get damaged.”
Former Thiruvadavur panchayat president, M Elavarasu, said water supply is the primary issue faced by over 1,500 families. Alleging official apathy, he said, “Many farmers are unable to irrigate crops due to the low voltage issue, despite the presence of a 110-KV sub-station in our panchayat.”
A Tangedco official told TNIE, “Unstable power supply from feeder lines has been causing problems at the substation. Besides, we are also planning to bifurcate supply from the main lines at the substation by installing more transformers. The issue will be resolved soon after an inspection by a Tangedco technical team from Melur.”