Ardee residents want discom to take over power supply

GURUGRAM: Ardee City residents have complained that their electric supply was cut off for the entire night on Tuesday and blamed it on the delay in the discom’s takeover of the power distribution from the builder.
Residents said that after power was back, fluctuations damaged several appliances. A few of them alleged that their water purifiers and inverters got damaged, adding that they would approach the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) officials to expedite the takeover.

“Our daily requirement is about 22megawatts (MW) but the current infrastructure has the capacity for only 5-6 MW, which is why the power cuts are being implemented,” said Chaitali Mandotra, a resident.

“For a full night, we were without power,” said Anmol, another resident, adding, “The electricity went off at 11pm and returned on Wednesday morning. We are irked by the frequent power cuts and want DHBVN to expedite the takeover as soon as possible.”

Ardee City is a plotted, open and licensed colony on 204 acres in Sector 52. At present, it is home to at least 20,000 residents, including 2,600 families. The builder distributes power to all the houses from a 5Mega-Volt-Ampere single point connection while the demand is 22.23 MVA, according to an assessment by DHBVN in 2014.

Earlier this year, residents complained that the builder was taking additional charges, including extra service tax and GST. They held protests in June after which the discom commissioned a survey of Ardee City before coming up with a proposal of issuing new meters and taking over power distribution in the area.

However, the takeover ran into rough weather recently after one of the residents filed a petition at a civil court in Gurugram, seeking a stay on it. The hearing in the case was postponed after the death of the former prime minister. However, last week, the additional district judge dismissed a separate petition in the same case. Now, DHBVN can complete the takeover.

TOI approached senior discom officials who said that they had not fixed a deadline for the takeover yet but would ensure that every consumer in Ardee City got enlisted for the new meters. “We will also be in touch with the RWA for the same,” he said.