Oh, power cuts are back!

Blackouts are back a little over a month after it was declared as no-more by the power supply and distribution authorities in the city.

This time a surprise element accompanies, as nowhere are the cuts scheduled or announced. In addition, industries across the State are being revisited by a two-day weekly power holiday.

On the domestic front, the blackouts are presently confined to ‘non-core' city as defined by the power distribution officials. All areas of GHMC falling into the purview of Ranga Reddy district are bundled into this category, and subjected to haphazard power cuts of two to three hours in a day.

“For the past three-four days, power goes off for one hour in the morning and once again post-noon. Even Sunday is not an exception, and there is no fixed time pattern either. When we called the local office, we were told that there was no incoming supply to the substation,” said Shyam Sundar Reddy, a resident of L. B. Nagar.

The situation is same in areas such as Vanasthalipuram, Uppal, Nacharam, Kukatpally, Jeedimetla, BHEL, Medchal, Malkajgiri, Quthbullahpur, Alwal, and Rajendranagar.

In addition to the domestic cuts, the industrial areas around the city suffer with a two-day power holiday. Industry sources inform that power cuts are also being implemented during evening peak hours, that is, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

“After due math, it seems we have to go without power for 15 days in a month. About a month ago, we had a meeting with the APTransco CMD who asked us to put up with one week-day without power in lieu of weekly holiday. But a couple of days ago, we received another message informing us about the two-day power holiday to be implemented right away,” said M. Madhusudhan Reddy, the owner of Maks Castings Limited in IDA, Uppal.

This will affect the small and medium industries very badly, as overheads for idle machinery and labour, along with interests on loans will pile up, rues Mr. Reddy.

On the other hand, industries involved in continuous processing are being asked to go off the line for any five days between February 11 and 29, an official from APCPDCL said.

From next month

From next month onwards, they will be imposed with 12 days without power in a month, while the ‘core city' too will be brought into the ambit of domestic power cuts, he tipped off.