Long power cuts, low voltage make public life horrible
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Sept 13: The severe hot and humid conditions in parts of Jammu is taking toll of nearly 35-40 electric transformers every day while the Power Development Department has failed to repair or replace all the damaged transformers in the region within 24 hours.
Sources revealed that due to power crisis these days, the electricity supply even in many areas of Jammu city remained disrupted for 8-14 hours for the last several weeks due to hot weather conditions and increased level of humidity. The low voltage and fluctuation in power supplies has been causing extensive damage to the electric appliances including refrigerators / TVs / ACs/ washing machines etc of the consumers.
Due to increased rate of damage, the Divisional level workshops of the Power Development Department (PDD) have been over burdened and are unable to repair the number of transformers reaching there from various city wards, village Panchayats and other towns like Nagrota, Kot Bhalwal, Marh, RS Pura, Miran Sahib, Akhnoor, Khour, Bishnah etc every day.
The heads of these PDD owned workshops are forced to either approach Chief Engineer PDD (M&RE) Jammu to provide the same from the Transformers bank created at Narwal or get repaired from Central workshop there. Even several PDD Division officials are dependent on the private factories /units at Jammu, Samba and Kathua during these hot summer and humid days to repair the damaged transformers as the PDD workshops do not have the much capacity.
Since the PDD authorities have failed to clear the pending arrears worth over Rs 8 crores of the private Transformers manufacturing/ repairing units for the last couple of years, several units have refused to repair PDD transformers, adding woes to the general public.
Even despite 100% metering in many cities and towns, the Power Development Departm-ent has failed to provide un-interrupted power supply to the consumers. The old and fragile power infrastructure has not been replaced or upgraded in many areas, not only in villages but in parts of major towns and cities for the years. Even where the works have been done under DDUGVY and new transformers installed, much damages have been reported from such areas due to poor quality.
Executive Engineer, PDD Division- III, Jammu, Sanjay Sharma when contacted said that for the last about one week, an average of about 15-20 transformers are getting damaged every day in the areas under his jurisdiction. He said only one workshop which he has in his division is unable to repair these transformers in one day. About 2-3 days time is required for repairing them. He said in Jammu city area like Janipur, Rehari, Bakshinagar, Ploura, Roop Nagar, Talab Tillo etc they are replacing the transformers within 24 hrs while in rural areas Marh, Pargwal, Khour, Pallanwalla area, they are replacing / repairing transformers within 2-3 days.
Sharma said during last many years, he has not seen such worst kind of power crisis and such a number of transformers getting damaged in Jammu area every day. He said unexpectedly, during September there is such hot and humid conditions in Jammu. Increased load on the existing system due to ACs and increasing number of family units/shops, has compounded the problem. He said that Department is getting the help from the Central workshop and also some private units for the repair/ replacement of damaged transformers.
PD Singh Jamwal, Executive Engineer, PDD Division- II (Gandhi nagar-Jammu), when contacted said that his Division has spread from Gandhi Nagar up to RS Pura, Suchetgarh and Bishnah. He said on an average nearly 15-18 transformers are getting damaged in his area for the last few weeks. Jamwal said in Division No.1 of Jammu (At Parade), the rate of damage is not so high. It may be hardly 5-7 units per day. In Jammu district alone, there is huge pressure these days. But the capacity of the local workshops is not enough to meet the demand. Each Division level workshop has the capacity of repairing nearly 5-6 damaged transformers per day, he added.
Jamwal said the PDD has the transformers of different capacities like 25, 63, 100, 250, 400 and 630 KVA installed at various villages, wards, towns and cities. The heavy transformers of 400 and 630 KVA are being repaired at Central workshop Narwal because their repairing cost is between Rs 80,000 to Rs one lakh. The cost of repair for other transformers ranged from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 per unit. He said they are also getting transformers from the Bank created for the purpose at Central workshop, Narwal.
Chief Engineer, PDD, EM&RE, Jammu, Sudhir Gupta, however, when contacted said that to overcome the crisis, the PDD has created a Transformers Bank where nearly 400 repaired/ new Transformers are stored. He said in Jammu district alone, there are three PDD Divisions but he has to look after the demand and needs of the other nine districts/ PDD Divisions of Jammu region.
Gupta said due to hot and humid conditions, the power crisis has deepened but the department was capable enough of dealing with the situation. He said in Jammu division , nearly 50 transformers are getting damaged every day. The cost of repair has exerted extra burden on the Department. The divisional level workshops have capacity to repair nearly 5-6 transformers every day but the Central workshop has more capacity. The Divisional level officers used to send some transformers at Central Workshop. They are also being fed from the Transformers Bank. He said nearly 70% work is performed by PDD workshops while 30% units are being repaired by the private small scale industrial units.
Replying to a question, the Chief Engineer said that in Jammu city, the standing instructions are there to the concerned Executive Engineers/ AEEs to replace/ repair damaged transformers within 24 hours but in villages they are doing it within 2-3 days. He said during rainy season like July –August- September, the rate of damage goes high due to excessive humidity. Gupta said they have cleared huge pending arrears of the private units repairing transformers for PDD Divisions during last 2-3 years but still arrears worth Rs 8 crore are pending. This amount will also be cleared shortly, Gupta maintained.
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