Frustrated over increasing power cuts for the past three days, residents of Thattanchavady and Nellithope constituencies blocked the road on Thursday night.
Traffic came to a standstill for more than five hours as protesters formed a human chain on Puducherry-Cuddalore Road. More than 500 people came to the road demanding restoration of power supply.
“People suffered without power supply for two consecutive nights. The children were affected the most. Agitated over this, women joined the protests and blocked the road,” said Gandhimathi, a resident of Kosapalayam.
Thattanchavady MLA Ashok Anand said there was no response from the Electricity department despite several attempts to contact them. “This further fuelled the public anger. Due to construction of a rail over bridge, a HT line was converted into a cable. However, the department failed to provide an alternate line. Due to cable fault, power supply was interrupted for nearly 14 hours over the past two days,” he said.
The affected areas were Nellithope, Thattanchavady, Vinobha Nagar, Saram, Anna Nagar and several surrounding areas.
He added that the public was not informed about this problem. None of the senior officers in the department came forward to address this issue even after the people came to the roads in protest.
Though power supply was restored to these areas by Friday afternoon, many other areas, including Mission Street, Vinobha Nagar, Kamaraja Nagar and Saram suffered power cuts.
Cable fault
An Electricity Department official said they had identified the location of fault in the cable and working to restore power supply. He maintained that there was no change in power supply.
Power supply to areas was cut on rotation. The official informed that supply would be restored by Saturday morning.
