Srinagar: With the mercury soaring, local population of several areas in Srinagar city are facing immense hardships due to unscheduled power cuts.
Residents of Soiteng, Padshahibagh, Shivpora and other adjacent areas said that for the past around one month, the power supply is snapped for five to seven hours during day.
The erratic power supply has led to outrage in these affected areas, with consumers asking authorities to issue “power curtailment schedule in force, if any.”
Residents of Syed Abad Soiteng said that they have to bear with long power cuts during the day.
“The supply remains affected for five seven hours all together during the day. This has been now a norm for past one month,” said Ghulam Hassan Bhat, a local resident.
Locals said that they don’t get satisfactory answers when they approach local PDD grid station to know the cause of power curtailment.
“For first few days, they said that power has been shut for the purpose of branch cutting of trees. We cooperated. But now, every day they tell us same excuse,” said Muhammad Yaseen, a local.
“In simple terms, PDD every year press men and machinery for cutting of tree branches that fall or touch supply lines. But they used to complete this process within day one or two maximum. This year, they took one month and still claim the branch cutting process is on,” said Bilal Ahmad of Padshahibagh.
“This year PDD authorities in our area have broken all previous records of power cuts during summer. This is something unbelievable and shocking. We are first time experiencing such a worst power supply in summer,” said a group of locals of Padshahibagh.
Residents of Shivpora have similar complaints who said erratic power supply for the past one still persists.
“Usually, the power supply during summers may remain disrupted but is restored immediately. This year, the situation of power supply is erratic, unsatisfactory,” they said.
AEE PDD sub-division Sheikhbagh Nisar Ahmad said that power cut schedule is being issued by PDD higher ups.
Complaint of unscheduled power cuts were received from various Downtown areas including Bagh-Ali-Mardan, Almagari Bazar and Hawal.
PDD Chief Engineer Ajaz Ahmad didn’t respond to repeated calls and texts by this reporter for comments on the matter. However, an official of Bemina PDD grid station said that power supply remained affected at few areas due to upgradation of Padshahibagh grid station.