GURUGRAM: Residents have been complaining of frequent power cuts as the city is facing another power crisis with areas such as Palam Vihar DLF , Ardee City, Sun City, Sushant Lok bearing the brunt. The renewed crisis coincides with the onset of monsoon as the discom grapples to augment the power infrastructure.As per latest figures, the power demand in the city has breached the 300-lakh mark, reaching 30967000 units per day.TOI could draw up an estimate of the number of power cuts per day and their duration in various areas of Gurugram by taking inputs from residents. It emerged that Palam Vihar, which does not get power supply for 8-10 hours in a day, is among the areas suffering the most in terms of number of power cuts per day, followed by DLF 3 and Ardee City where residents have to spend up to seven hours of a day without power supply.The power cuts don’t occur uniformly and may last for just 10 minutes to 3-4 hours at a stretch. Sector 70 residents said the discom sent messages on Wednesday, saying supply to commercial spaces and malls would remain disrupted for the next three days.Most residents TOI spoke with also complained about power fluctuations that end up damaging appliances. According to Sushant Lok 1, DLF 3 and Ardee City residents, the fuses of electronic gadgets often get burnt due to the erratic power supply. “In most cases, the discom tells us that we are facing overloading problems,” said Dinesh Aggarwal, a member of the Sector 14 RWA. “Our sector seems to be reeling under the worst power crisis. So many outages occur in a single day,” he added.Most residents said fluctuations mostly took place during the night, forcing them to shut down ACs for fear of damaging them. A Sushant Lok 1 resident said, “We experience ‘Amawasya’ every day and cannot even think of going out of the house late in the evening. Our ACs have become display pieces.”In DLF 3, the problem is compounded by water shortage. “Since we only get water twice a day, if there is no power in the timeframe when we are supposed to turn on our motor pumps to draw water, there is no water for the rest of the day. We are facing a water shortage on account of power cuts,” said Poonam, a resident of DLF 3.Residents of sectors 3, 5 and 6 said that power cuts did not last long but its high frequency was a problem.“On Wednesday, a tree fell on low-tension (LT) lines near House 35 in Sector 4, snapping power supply for several hours. It was restored later,” said Dinesh Vashishsta, president of the combined RWA of sectors 3, 5 and 6.Power officials said that they were working to curb power cuts. “Power cuts happen in the summer because of overloading and overheating of the power distribution system. The high demand heats up some conductors but we are continuously replacing old conductors with new ones. Recently, we replaced almost 7 kilometres of conductor lines. We are also installing new transformers regularly. There is already a Rs 12,000-crore investment in the smart grid project that will radically overhaul the power distribution network. Also during the monsoon, the heated up conductors imbibe moisture and crack — that is normal physics. In such cases, we immediately mobilise teams and get the problem solved in short notice.”As hours-long outages leave residents fuming, the supply of water in the city has been a lot better this summer compared to previous years. The major problem in Gurugram over the years has been the distribution of water, which the authorities have managed to fix this summer to some extent, according to officials.“The supply of water has never been a major problem in Gurugram. It has always been the equitable distribution which posed a hurdle. In March this year, we augmented the distribution by laying a new pipeline from Basai water treatment plant to Sector 5 and nearby areas. This means that major areas of the city, which earlier suffered from water shortage, did not face any crisis this summer,” said a senior GMDA official. The work of laying this pipe was started by Huda a couple of years ago but was completed earlier this year.The authorities claimed that while the daily water demand is around 450 mld (million litres per day), they have been able to supply over 420 mld, and on some days supplied 450 mld as well.“On an average, we have been supplying around 420 mld from Basai and Chandu Budhera treatment plants, and so far we have not suffered major crises. There have been some minor glitches, which have happened owing to local issues, and they were addressed immediately. A pipeline recently had burst near Signature Towers owing to excessive pressure, which too was resolved effectively,” the official said.GMDA CEO V Umashankar expressed satisfaction with the prevailing water situation across the city. “We have been able to ensure that there has been no crisis this summer even during the peak demand time, and we will continue our efforts,” he said.Apart from laying the new pipeline, augmentation has been done in the two boosting stations at Sector 16 and Sector 51. Another boosting station is being constructed in Sector 72 as well. Some new pumps have been installed in the boosting station in Sector 16 so that areas such as DLF Phase-3, which are at the tail end of the pipeline, also receive adequate supply of water. The theft of water has also been kept under check by the authorities this summer, but they reiterated that politicians and councillors try to protect those who install illegal water connections.

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