Even though load shedding has been brought down from four hours to three hours in the suburbs, residents of Thiruninravur allege that they have been facing power cuts from 9 a.m to noon and again from 3 p.m to 6 p.m. Those in the city have been troubled by low voltage problem.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced that from June 2, domestic consumers in Chennai will have to bear only one hour load shedding and those in remaining parts of the State, three hours. “Two months back we were facing 12-hour power cuts daily. But even after the chief minister reduced the duration of scheduled power cuts, for the past two days we have been facing long duration of outages,” said S.Alamelumangai, a resident of Prakash Nagar, 8th street in Thiruninravur
According to her, in the night the locality is affected by voltage fluctuation. “Electrical equipment in my house has been spoilt. Despite giving complaints, there has been no response from the local Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) office,” she said.
Roy Rozario, general secretary of People’s Voice said that the power cuts have become a headache for residents who stay out of city limits. “Some times there interruptions occur due to some technical problem too,” he said.
Residents claim that a mobile phone tower in the locality draws electricity from the grid. “Due to this the voltage drops. Despite the presence of such huge structure that consumes large amount of electricity, the transformer in the locality is of low capacity,” said Mrs. Alamelumangai.
The voltage problem is also a major complaint for city residents. “We are not able to run the air-conditioners at night due to low voltage. It is a major problem during summer. Children find it hard to sleep and they doze off in the class room the next day,” said J.Hrishikesh, a resident of T.Nagar.
TANGEDCO officials said that in the city the main problem was overloading due to increased usage of air-conditioners. “The problem in Thiruninravur must be due to some technical problem. The staff will look into the issue,” said a TANGEDCO official.
