Summer is already making itself felt in the city and adding to the worries of water shortage is unscheduled power cuts happening in various parts of the city. While Bescom officials say sufficient power is available, residents tell a different story.
"There have been regular power cuts of half-an-hour to 45 minutes every day, sometimes late in the night," says Vasudev, a resident of C.V. Raman Nagar, adding that this has been the situation for the last one month.
Banashankari Stage VI has been experiencing power outages for half-an-hour to an hour since the last one-and-a-half months. “Since this is a new BDA Layout, we sometimes have power shortage. Power goes out for half-an-hour to an hour in the day time,” says Mahesh, a resident. But he has bigger problems to worry about — the residents are facing acute water shortage. While the BBMP has promised tankers, supply through tankers is irregular and only a few households get water.
Bescom Director (Technical) Siddaraju admitted that some areas face infrastructure constraints due to which Bescom is forced to go in for load shedding in these pockets, including H.S.R. Layout, Naganathapura and B.T.M. Layout in the south, and Yellarbande, Sagar Nagar and Banaswadi in the east.
“Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) is responsible for power generation and Bescom handles the distribution side. Sufficient power is available. We are forced to undertake load shedding in some areas because of some line and station constraints,” said Siddaraju, Director (Technical), Bescom.
The Bescom website lists unscheduled power outages in March in several areas, including Jayanagar, Peenya division and Koramangala division.
The KPCL has an installed capacity of 6,498.91 MW, a major part of which is hydel power (3,652.35 MW). As per data available on December 2, 2016, water in most reservoirs in the State was less than 50 per cent of their live storage capacity.
‘Industries need separate feeders’
In view of the unscheduled power cuts across the city, the industrial sector has sought specialised feeders for industrial estates.
“Bengaluru is called a dynamic city. When the Power Minister says there is no power cut in Bengaluru, why these unscheduled cuts?” says M.C. Dinesh, chairman, FKCCI. "As much as 92 percent of industries in Bengaluru are not in designated areas and, hence, are not fed by specialised feeders, but by those in residential areas. This includes industries in Rajajinagar Industrial Estate, Prakash Nagara, Chickpet, and Sampangi Ramnagar. When you cut power supply during the day, these industries will not work.”
Hence, it is important that power cuts are announced in advance to enable industries to work around them, he added.
