Delhi, dealing with the double whammy of an unprecedented heatwave and a severe water crisis, took a new blow this afternoon. There were power cuts in several parts of the capital city after a power grid in UP's Mandola - which supplies 1,500 megawatts of electricity to the national capital - caught fire, Delhi Power Minister Atishi said.
The temperature in Delhi this afternoon hovered around 42 degrees Celsius.
"There has been a major power cut in many parts of Delhi since 2:11 PM today. A power grid in Mandola, UP, which supplies 1,500 MW of electricity to Delhi, has caught fire. We are linking it to our other power sources," Atishi said.
"I will seek an appointment with the new Union Power Minister today since the country's power transmission is run by the central government," said the minister.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, criticising the Centre, said, "It is worrying that the national-level power infrastructure has come to a standstill today. The failure of the national grid in the country's capital is quite worrying. There was no power cut even when Delhi's peak power demand reached 8,000 MW. This power cut happened due to the failure of the national infrastructure."
AAP and the Centre-appointed Lt Governor of Delhi, VK Saxena, locked in a feud for long, have recently clashed on the acute water crisis. Mr Saxena met with AAP ministers over the crisis and asked them to refrain from a blame game with Haryana, which has been accused by AAP of not releasing Delhi's share of water.
Social media users posted about the power cuts.
"No electricity in east Delhi Vivek Vihar. Please resolve the issue. This season is already at its peak. Hard to tolerate," posted one tagging Delhi's electricity body BSES.
"Dear Bses, electricity is not available in the Yamuna Vihar C2 block for two hours. It is Delhi. Please do not take revenge on us. Why is electricity not available for two hours?" wrote another tagging BSES, AAP, and Arvind Kejriwal.
Another user flagged: "Ram Nagar, Shahdara, Delhi 110032, Street no 10 has no electricity for the last two hours. Why??????????"
"No electricity in IP Extn Delhi 110092 for the last more than 40 minutes," wrote another.
An intense and unprecedented heatwave has been sweeping Delhi for nearly a month now with temperatures soaring north of 50 degrees Celsius on some days. The India Meteorological Department has predicted that heatwave conditions will prevail in most parts of the city.
