Bandipora, Oct 27: Many villages continue to reel under darkness here due to inordinate delay in construction of 50 MVA Grid Station at Putushyia Village.
 Work on the Grid Station is going on at a snail’s pace for past four years. Estimated at Rs 17.50 crores, the project is being executed by the State Power Development Department in collaboration with the Chennai based GET Power limited.
 The Grid Station envisaged to supply power to 108 villages of Bandipora sub-division to get power supply. Presently, the villages are getting power from the Amargarh Grid Station in Sopore. However, the power supply is so erratic that the villages reel under darkness even with a minor fault. The inhabitants of the villages have been demanding power supply from the Putushyia Grid Station to end the power crisis.
 However, inordinate delay in the Grid’s construction has evoked strong resentment among the residents. Though the PDD blames last year’s unrest for the delay in commissioning of the Grid Station, the locals accuse it of working at a slow pace. 
 “The power supply from Amargarh is not satisfactory. Even with a light breeze, there is fault in the transmission lines and power supply is snapped for days together. We demand that work on the grid station should be completed at the earliest,” said Sarpanch of the area Ghulam Mohi-ud-din.
 The PDD claims that it has started installing transmission lines at a cost of 16.70 Crores. Out of 107 line towers, only 60 have been erected in past four years.
 An Engineer of PDD Irshad Ahmed acknowledged inordinate delay in the work. “Last year’s unrest affected the construction work. Besides some legal issues and other official procedure contributed to the delay,” he said.
 “Water level at the construction site is not uniform. It keeps on changing affecting the work. We are trying to complete the work as soon as possible,” said an Engineer monitoring the construction.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:00:00 IST