Mayawati declared Noida a no-power cut zone
Official Blame-Game: Outdated Equipment, 'Causing Problems' Keep Noida In Dark
Barely a month after UP Chief Minister Mayawati declared Noida a no-power cut zone, residents are facing eight to 10 hour power cuts as the state power corporation's equipment is going bust.
Power department officials have transferred the blame to "higher authorities", adding that outdated machinery is also "causing problems".
Government sources say "orders to cut power in the city were issued from Lucknow". Incidentally, electricity rates were hiked a few weeks back.
The city has had to deal with close to eight-hour power cuts daily for the past few weeks as officials blame lack of a strong core structure of equipment, besides workers.
Industrial areas have also been facing an acute shortage as the control room in Lucknow has been issuing orders to the area load dispatch centres for loadshedding in the no-power cut zone, officials say.
Centres in Saahupuri (Varanasi) and Panki (Kanpur), officials claim, have been issuing orders for power cuts as shortage of power in the state is leading to 18-hour outages in cities like Meerut and Moradabad.
WHY THE CRUNCH
Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had announced free power to villages in a radius of 10 km near the National Thermal Power Plant at Dadri; 10 months on, it has not been fulfilled.
Dadri goes without power for 18 hours as a 132-KVA power sub-station, which was to be operational by March, is under construction.
Production equipment at Anpara has gone bust and Lucknow has issued orders for power cuts.
Cable boxes in 33 KVA sub-station at Sector 19 are damaged and the 5 MVA sub-station in Sector 20 has damaged transformers; the supply, officials say, is being managed through stop-gap arrangements from adjacent stations
The 33 KVA power station in Ghaziabad, near Lal Kuan, that supplies power to Dadri and other areas in Gautam Budh Nagar has been tripping as the load capacity has not been increased, officials say
And, even as weather department officials in Delhi predict a harsh summer for NCR, officials say power cuts will continue till "special orders" are issued
A senior power official said "supply will be disrupted" unless special steps are taken at the administration-level in Lucknow.
WATER WOES
Residents of the IT city is powerless on the water front too. As per officials estimates, nearly 23 million litres is wasted in Noida and Greater Noida per day (MLD); that is almost 8,080 MLD per year. This, when the NCR suffers severe water woes. If wastage goes on at this rate, the city will face acute water shortage in a few years, senior officers of the Greater Noida Authority said.
With 2,000 km-long water pipelines in the district, the repairing procedure is hard to monitor, say officials.
While Rs 50 to 60 lakh are pumped into maintenance and construction of water pipelines every year, the Authority seems to be `unaware' of the problem at hand.
Officials say the damage to pipelines caused by various environmental and other reasons has not been handled efficiently. "The department does not have enough staff," a senior official of the Jal Nigam said.
While the demand is close to 35 MLD per day, only up to 25 MLD reaches homes. Higher officials, however, claim they are on track to bring back the system to place.
S S A Rizvi, General Manager of Water Supply Schemes department, said, "We are ensuring that all illegal connections and unused supply lines are cut-off and repair work is handled at war-footing."
The junior officials claim the job at hand is time-consuming and tough. The damage and leakage spots, they claim, are tough to identify. Moreover, dipping water levels in the district due to fast-track urbanisation has ensured that the underground water levels have gone down by 2 to 3 metres, making it difficult to keep pace with demand, officials said.
Barely a month after UP Chief Minister Mayawati declared Noida a no-power cut zone, residents are facing eight to 10 hour power cuts as the state power corporation's equipment is going bust.
Power department officials have transferred the blame to "higher authorities", adding that outdated machinery is also "causing problems".
Government sources say "orders to cut power in the city were issued from Lucknow". Incidentally, electricity rates were hiked a few weeks back.
The city has had to deal with close to eight-hour power cuts daily for the past few weeks as officials blame lack of a strong core structure of equipment, besides workers.
Industrial areas have also been facing an acute shortage as the control room in Lucknow has been issuing orders to the area load dispatch centres for loadshedding in the no-power cut zone, officials say.
Centres in Saahupuri (Varanasi) and Panki (Kanpur), officials claim, have been issuing orders for power cuts as shortage of power in the state is leading to 18-hour outages in cities like Meerut and Moradabad.
WHY THE CRUNCH
Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had announced free power to villages in a radius of 10 km near the National Thermal Power Plant at Dadri; 10 months on, it has not been fulfilled.
Dadri goes without power for 18 hours as a 132-KVA power sub-station, which was to be operational by March, is under construction.
Production equipment at Anpara has gone bust and Lucknow has issued orders for power cuts.
Cable boxes in 33 KVA sub-station at Sector 19 are damaged and the 5 MVA sub-station in Sector 20 has damaged transformers; the supply, officials say, is being managed through stop-gap arrangements from adjacent stations
The 33 KVA power station in Ghaziabad, near Lal Kuan, that supplies power to Dadri and other areas in Gautam Budh Nagar has been tripping as the load capacity has not been increased, officials say
And, even as weather department officials in Delhi predict a harsh summer for NCR, officials say power cuts will continue till "special orders" are issued
A senior power official said "supply will be disrupted" unless special steps are taken at the administration-level in Lucknow.
WATER WOES
Residents of the IT city is powerless on the water front too. As per officials estimates, nearly 23 million litres is wasted in Noida and Greater Noida per day (MLD); that is almost 8,080 MLD per year. This, when the NCR suffers severe water woes. If wastage goes on at this rate, the city will face acute water shortage in a few years, senior officers of the Greater Noida Authority said.
With 2,000 km-long water pipelines in the district, the repairing procedure is hard to monitor, say officials.
While Rs 50 to 60 lakh are pumped into maintenance and construction of water pipelines every year, the Authority seems to be `unaware' of the problem at hand.
Officials say the damage to pipelines caused by various environmental and other reasons has not been handled efficiently. "The department does not have enough staff," a senior official of the Jal Nigam said.
While the demand is close to 35 MLD per day, only up to 25 MLD reaches homes. Higher officials, however, claim they are on track to bring back the system to place.
S S A Rizvi, General Manager of Water Supply Schemes department, said, "We are ensuring that all illegal connections and unused supply lines are cut-off and repair work is handled at war-footing."
The junior officials claim the job at hand is time-consuming and tough. The damage and leakage spots, they claim, are tough to identify. Moreover, dipping water levels in the district due to fast-track urbanisation has ensured that the underground water levels have gone down by 2 to 3 metres, making it difficult to keep pace with demand, officials said.