Surplus energy fails to banish power cuts in city

Hyderabad: Despite having surplus energy available in the state, power interruptions have become a norm in several areas like Ranigunj, Sainikpuri, Miyapur, Alwal and Mahindra Hills, apart from old city areas like Karwan, Bahadurpura, Hassan Nagar, Hussaini Alam, Vattepally, Fatima Nagar etc. since the past one week.

While the Load Dispatch Centre is showing no power deficit at all, several areas in the city continue to face two to three hours of power cuts.

Moreover, each time there is a power disruption and consumers want to lodge a complaint, they find it extremely difficult.

Many consumers claim that their calls go unanswered for hours. When questioned, senior officials said that it may be an area based maintenance problem that is causing disruptions.

“Two days back, when I tried to lodge a complaint because of a sudden power cut in our locality, I could not get through the line for the first one hour. After relentlessly trying, my call got through and a complaint number was given to me. I was told that the supply will be restored in 10 minutes. After another 15 minutes when I called again, another person took the call and said there was no complaint registered and took in a fresh complaint,” said T. Anjali from Ranigunj.

The officials said that to attend to each call, it takes a minimum of five to 10 minutes and that puts a limitation on the number of calls that can be attended to in a day.

Consumers should get in touch with section office or the area divisional engineer to lodge their complaints instead of waiting on the emergency line.

“Since the emergency line (155333) is a 16line phone, it may be difficult for people to get through it when many consumers make calls simultaneously. Consumers should instead get in touch with their area section office to lodge a complaint, ask the details and contact numbers of ADE and area office from meter readers when they come to take the readings,” said Satish Kumar, chief general manager, Metro Zone.