Power infra? Loose cables, open panels & rusted poles

Noida: Power transmission capacity is not the city’s only problem. It’s last mile power infrastructure — open panel boxes, rusting transformers and poles, and overhead loose cables — that needs to be fixed first to bring down outages, especially during the rains, residents have pointed out.
Last week, Noida’s RWA federation also wrote to the state energy minister, Shrikant Sharma, on the matter and sought his immediate intervention.
“We have made numerous complaints to the Noida power department about open panel boxes, loose overhead cables and rusting poles, but there has been no redress so far. All we are told is a mere lip service that work is being done. But we see the results in mere light showers or dust storms when supply outages occur due to faults in cable or transformer sparking,” said a resident of Sector 28.
“Feeder panels in our sector are dangerous. For many years, they have not been replaced, forget the periodic maintenance. Voltage fluctuations and power supply interruption occur due to this reason,” said SK Jain, a resident of Sector 92. “PVVNL needs to undertake proper periodic maintenance of the power infrastructure of the city.”
Meanwhile, the Federation of Noida Residents Welfare Associations (FONRWA) has written to the UP power minister last Monday on these issues. “Noida is one of the most modern cities in India with world-class facilities and infrastructure. But still, due to the lack of electricity infrastructure, the problem of electricity persists which urgently needs to be rectified,” FONRWA president Yogendra Sharma said.