Bengaluru: Indirangar 13th main residents had to put up with long hours of power outage on Friday as Bescom took up the tree trimming and cutting work, without any prior initiation.
The residents complained that there was no power between 12 noon and 6 pm and the linemen were chopping off tree branches at various places.
When they approached Bescom officials, a senior supervisor said that it was a routine maintenance work and hence as a precautionary measure they had to disconnect power.
“We had to trim down the trees as the branches had grown beyond the electric power lines. We had received complaints from some residents of constant power fluctuation, as the braches and leaves were coming in contact with live wires,” the official said.
“When branches touch a live wire, it leads to sparks and power fluctuation, and sometimes even disrupts power. Hence, we had to trim the overgrown branches,” the supervisor added.
He also said it was not possible to carry out repairs without disconnecting power. “We have to disconnect the power until the trees are trimmed. Also, whenever the trees are being cut, there is a chance of branches falling on the wires and damaging them. Only after the trimming work is over, we take up fixing the damaged wires and clearing the area. All this takes time,” he added.
However, the residents claimed that there was no need to cut heavy branches, which was not coming in contact with the wires. They also felt the work would have been completed at a quicker pace.
Manohar Kumar, a resident said, “It is high time Bescom used better technology to safeguard the wires from branches and not disconnect power for long hours just to trim trees. Moreover there was no prior intimation regarding maintenance work.”
