Power outage for more than eight hours in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: The residents in Indiranagar were caught unawares on a weekday when there was a power outage lasting for more than seven hours. The unannounced power cut was reported between 10 am and 5 pm, causing inconvenience to residents.

Those who called up Bescom in the morning were not informed when the power would be restored, and only towards afternoon they gave a 5 pm deadline.  If this was not enough traffic was also hit as Bescom took up tree cutting and pruning at some stretches. Bescom officials said Indiranagar is one among the five areas in city where maintenance work was being taken up. Similar work was also going on at Koramangala, Shivajinagar, Jayanagar and Vidhana Soudha surroundings.

“We have taken up maintenance at these five areas where works such as tree pruning, repairing of transformers were being taken up. Bescom began these works in July and will continue till September in a phased manner. Earlier these maintenance works are taken up during weekends, and several residents complained. They said power supply should not be disrupted during weekends, when most of the residents are at home. Hence to minimise inconvenience we are taking up such work during weekdays,” said a Bescom official.

The experts pointed out that the Bescom lacks the infrastructure and modern equipment to ensure uninterrupted power supply, even during maintenance. “But Bescom can still ensure that the residents are informed well in advance about the power outage. When you are switching off power for more than seven hours, the consumers have the right to be informed in advance. But the information is given to the consumers only when they dial the Bescom call centre. Why can’t the Bescom come up with some SMS based app to tell consumers when they will be taking up maintenance work?” asked an expert.