Bangalore: City fears power cuts will continue, Bescom says no

Bangalore: Bangaloreans had only just begun to settle down for the hiked power tariffs by the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), which was increased by 30 paise per unit on December 7. The bitter aftertaste had hardly left, and now the people also have to put up with frequent power disruptions.

"There were frequent disruptions in power lasting 15 minutes or so. I had called some friends for an evening party on Friday. My friends dispersed immediately after dinner; courtesy Bescom. If this is what is in store for us, then it's unfair," said Arun Solanki, a resident of RT Nagar.

"Newspaper reports mentioned power cut between 10 am to 5pm, but they require much less time than that. Expecting power cut, we went outdoors on Saturday. On coming back, we learnt that the power cut was only for an hour," said Anushilani Bhargav, a resident of Doddathogur Gate.

"We fear that the unscheduled power cuts are back again. We want Bescom to keep its promise of quality service now that the tariffs have been increased," said Balasaraswathi, a resident of Koramangala.

However, officials of the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom) said the repair works were normal. "It is quite obvious that at one or the other feeder shows problem. People need not fear as we have enough power supply for the city," said H Nagesh, director (technical), Bescom.

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The Bescom had announced repair works in some major feeders of the supply system. There was one feeder being repaired in Hebbal due to which RT Nagar police station, RT Nagar post office, Hebbal, Chamundi Nagar, HMT Layout and Manjunatha Layout were affected.

The executive engineer responsible to undertake the repair work blamed it on the trees lined up along Hebbal to RT Nagar Main Road. "MUSS had to be repaired as frequent electricity line problems occurred due to uncut branches of huge trees lined up all along the main road from Hebbal to RT Nagar," said VS Bidri, executive engineer, Hebbal muss.

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The problem at three power stations in Electronic City was something different. Officials said that new customers were getting power from a single line circuit and the Bescom intended to make it double line. "There was no line clearance given in the earlier week due to French president's visit to Wipro. We had to add the new 11 kv line this weekend," said a Bescom official on condition of anonymity.

Koramangala muss will see repair works of two feeders and National Games Village, Koramangala 5th, 6th and 8th blocks would be affected on Monday.

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