The Hindu : Rain brings companions -- waterlogging and power cuts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 21, 2003

Other States

Other States - New Delhi

Rain brings companions -- waterlogging and power cuts

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JUNE 20. The pre-monsoon rain on Thursday evening and Friday morning did bring much needed relief to Delhiites from the scorching sun, but it also brought with it the by now familiar problems of waterlogging and hours of power cuts in large parts of the Capital -- giving an indication of the things to come in this monsoon season. Consequently, traffic snarls were also reported from various parts of the city including the busy ITO.

``Rain brought with it waterlogging and power cuts totally exposing the preparedness of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the BSES Rajdhani Power Limited for the monsoon months,'' said Rajni Tripathi, a resident of Paschimi Marg in South Delhi, who had to put up with waterlogging when she left home for office this morning. "There was almost no electricity in the night,'' she complained.

Same was the situation in R.K. Puram where there was no electricity for more than four hours last night and about three hours in the morning. "When we called the Complaint Centre, we were told us that there is some local problem. We have been hearing this for the past two weeks,'' said Deepali Chatterjee, who stays in Sector XII of this colony.

Residents of East of Kailash had no electricity from 8 a. m. to 12-30 p.m. Those residing in Defence Colony said the supply of power was very erratic since last night. "It comes for an hour and then goes off for two hours. The situation has only deteriorated this year,'' another resident Manisha Dube complained.

In South Delhi, complaints of waterlogging and power cuts were received from Malviya Nagar, South Extension, Madangir, M.B. Road, Mehrauli, Saket, Kalkaji, Govindpuri, Tughlakabad and Sadiq Nagar. With elections approaching, local politicians and municipal Councillors were seen trying to solve the water-logging problem. "But we cannot do much about power as it has been privatised,'' a Councillor said.

However, worst sufferers were the residents of Shahdara in East Delhi. Water remained stagnant for several hours on the roads today. This also resulted in power cuts as rain water seeped into sub-stations and transformers. The situation in the Walled City area was no better and the power situation here continued to be irregular.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Subhash Arya, in a statement alleged that heavy water logging in various parts of the Capital only proved that no desilting work has been done by the Congress-ruled MCD. Having made a round of some of these areas, he said water-logging problem was faced in Karawal Nagar, Uttam Nagar, Narela, Najafgarh and Shahdara.

Unscheduled loadshedding today was a direct outcome of the water-logging problem. Power cuts were reported from Chandani Chowk, Krishna Nagar, Jhil Mil, Laxmi Nagar, Nizamuddin, C. R. Park and Shahpurjat. Senior BSES officials said power cuts were mainly due to system constraints.

Further due to cable faults, the North Delhi Power Limited had to resort to load-shedding in Mukherjee Nagar and adjoining areas from 6-15 p.m. to 8 p.m. Meanwhile, Delhi Transco officials said peak demand met today fell to 2,647 MW and the maximum load- shedding was just 36 MW.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

Stories in this Section

Rain brings companions -- waterlogging and power cuts

No load-shedding from next year, asserts Sheila

Naval Commander dies in mishap

Short-term courses may mark a new trend