Residents of Rajakilpakkam want the State government to launch work on a sub-station of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board to improve the power situation in their locality, which comes under the Sembakkam town panchayat.
The town panchayat had handed over eight grounds in Maruthi Nagar to TNEB two years ago for constructing a sub-station. The site is next to a park developed on a huge expanse of government land earmarked for public purposes. A commercial complex is also under construction near the park. The move to create the facilities was to keep land sharks at bay.
Chairman of the town panchayat A.R.D.Loganathan said the local body council passed an unanimous resolution more than two years ago giving its consent to hand over the land to TNEB and they too like the residents were waiting for the project to begin.
Senior officials of TNEB confirmed that the Board had been given the land and it had even paid Rs.2 crore to take possession of the same. Panchayat officials said the amount was paid to the Kancheepuram district administration directly.
According to representatives of civic groups in Sembakkam, power supply disruptions and voltage fluctuations were at their worst during summer.
The only way out to address the problem was to construct a sub station.
According to sources in the town panchayat, problems were so acute that during summer, the supply was so erratic that they could not even operate motors to pump drinking water to overhead tanks. Sources said that while a 110 kv sub-station was originally envisaged, the plans now were only for a 33 kv sub-station.
TNEB officials said there was no cause for alarm as the project was on track. According to them, the scheduled date for commissioning the sub-station was August this year and that civil works would be started soon. To a query, the officials said that if a 33 kv sub-station was built now, it could be upgraded later. A final picture on the sub-station's capacity, however, would emerge soon, they added.
