The thundershowers in the last two days have again exposed that it is the southern and eastern parts of Bengaluru that suffers the worst power woes. The reason seems clear: poor and outdated infrastructure made worse by the fact that these zones have some of the most populous neighbourhoods.
An analysis show that the north and west, which have fewer consumers, are not as badly affected by rains. Unfortunately, the most populous parts of the city seem to have the worst power infrastructure. There are 19. 2 lakh active connections in west and north zone in comparison to the 25.59 lakh consumers in south and east zones.
“There are several grid constraints in the south and east zones. This is primarily because of the massive growth in number of consumers. The rate of expansion of the network has not been able to keep pace,” said a senior BESCOM official.
On Wednesday, technical snags at a substation maintained by the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) were responsible for residents in east and south zones experiencing blackouts for hours on end.
The issue of infrastructure and old grids cannot be addressed in the short-term, which means that those living in these zone will continue to experience power cuts as the monsoon sets in.
