Unscheduled power cuts leave Rourkela denizens sweating

ROURKELA:  Residents of the Steel City have run out of patience with the Tata Power Western Odisha Distribution Ltd (TPWODL) over long spell of unscheduled power cuts and tripping woes.

Stuck indoors due to the Covid lockdown, people are facing a torrid time in absence of electricity as power cuts are occurring for 3-4 hours at a stretch amid the hot and humid weather conditions.

The suffering compounds when there are outages even during the night. Adding to the miseries is frequent tripping.

A delegation of Rourkela district Congress committee (RDCC) recently met TPWODL superintending engineer AN Meher and demanded immediate corrective measures. On Monday, a delegation of BJP also met the discom’s executive engineer over the same issue.  

Former RDCC president Biren Senapati said almost all localities in Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) limits are facing a minimum of 3-4 hours of power cut at a time.

“Sometimes, it goes beyond five hours. The Rourkela Industrial Estate faced power cut from 5 am to 11 am on Tuesday with tripping for at least 50 times. When TPWODL replaced WESCO, consumers had hoped for quality power supply. However, the power supply scenario has turned worse despite the recent tariff hike,” he claimed.

 The superintending engineer blamed the outages on damage to power lines during rains and thunderstorm and for regular maintenance works, Senapati said adding, “The claims are untrue as power disruptions are happening regularly without rains or thunderstorm.” 

Rourkela Bar Association (RBA) president and former chairman of the erstwhile Rourkela municipality Ramesh Chandra Bal said court work was affected on Tuesday due to power failure for two and a half hours.

On the day, a portion of the posh Civil Township went without power from 3 am to 7 am and again from 8 am to 10 am.

The authorities attributed it to damage to overhead wires from rain and storm and subsequent maintenance work. Informing that RMC areas require about 80-85 mega watt (MW) power daily, TPWODL sources said the outages and tripping are happening due to power overload. Comments of TPWODL superintending engineer Meher are awaited.