Blackout in Ludhiana as 220 KV feeder develops a snag
The power went out at 9.30pm on Friday and could not be restored till about 2am in several areas of Ludhiana; in areas connected to the sub-stations of Kitchlu Nagar, GT Road and Chaura Bazaar, it took more than six hours for workers to rectify the fault, leaving residents fuming due to the blackout
The city plunged into darkness for several hours on Friday night as a snag developed in the 220 KV Feeder on Hambran Road. The power went out at 9.30pm and could not be restored till about 2am in several areas. In some areas, the supply resumed around 11am on Saturday.
In areas connected to the sub-stations of Kitchlu Nagar, GT Road and Chaura Bazaar, it took more than six hours for workers to rectify the fault.
Residents of Pritam Nagar were in for a shock as power went out again on Friday, a day after it was restored after a 48-hour outage that started on Tuesday. Angry residents came out their houses and staged a protest against Punjab State Power Corporation Limited officials. They said that the transformer in the area got damaged but despite submitting complaints online, supply was not restored till 11am on Saturday.
Varun Gupta, a resident of Pritam Nagar, said, “At 9.30 pm, the power suddenly went off. Our family could sleep the whole night due to the unscheduled power cut.”
The situation was no different in areas such as Punjab Mata Nagar and Pakhowal Road where power was restored after 14 hours. PSPCL officials said that in many areas, transformers got damaged due to excessive load.
Ishneet Sharma, a resident of Punjab Mata Nagar, said, “Due to the outage, I was not able to sleep last night. Usually, the fault is rectified in one or two hours but after Friday’s power cut, supply was restored around 11am on Saturday. Water supply on the first and second floors of the house was also affected due to this.”
In Surjit Colony, no power since 3 days
For the last three days, residents of Surjit Nagar have been without electricity. With no power to run household appliances and erratic water supply posing a problem, residents say the experience is nightmarish. “We have called the helpline number but even after registering a complaint, no one has come to resolve our issue. We are living in hell as there is no power or water at home. We have been purchasing drinking water for the last three days. For washing clothes and bathing, we have no water. We have no option but to wait till regular supply resumes,” said Sukhwinder Kaur, a resident.
As per officials, workers are repairing the faults in two areas Aggar Nagar and Focal point and will restore the power by evening. PSPCL chief engineer, distribution (central), Bhupinder Singh Khosla, said, “The blackout was due to a problem in the feeder on Hambran Road. It took several hours to fix the problem. Workers remained on their toes the entire night and used flood lights to check the fault. Supply in most areas was restored between 1 to 2 pm.”