Chandigarh: 24 hours later, lights back on but Tricity still flickers

More than 24 hours after high-velocity winds accompanied by heavy rain caused extensive damages to electricity infrastructure, uprooting trees, poles and snapping overhead lines, officials managed to restore the supply across Chandigarh, Panchkula, Kalka and Mohali on Saturday. Residents said that their routine works were affected due to the outage. They also said that even after the restoration work, they continued to face frequent outages due to sparking and short circuits in damaged poles.

Sunil Vashisth, president of the Residents Welfare and Development Association in Sector 15 of Panchkula, said residents faced acute hardship as inverter batteries were exhausted due to the long outage.

Rakesh Aggarwal, a member of the Panchkula Vikas Manch, said power cuts have been a regular affair. “Faults are repaired, but they reoccur soon after,” he said.

Water supply in several Panchkula sectors remained affected as tube wells were non-functional amid the outage. On Friday morning, an 11 kV high-tension electricity pole had collapsed on the dividing road between Sectors 24 and 25 of Panchkula, affecting all 22 feeders of the 66 kV network.

As many as 13 poles in Panchkula and 70 in Kalka were damaged. Besides, transformers were damaged in Khagesra and Sectors 12, 21 and 23 as well as in Kalka Urban Complex. Several uprooted trees were seen on roads, disrupting traffic.

In Mohali, officials said the power supply restoration work was complete by 4 pm. The areas that saw prolonged outage included Phase 1, 3B1, 7, 10, Sectors 79 and 80. HS Oberoi, deputy chief engineer, Mohali, said the supply had been restored in nearly 80% of the affected areas by Friday evening itself. “Over 10 electricity poles were damaged in Phase 7 due to strong winds, which delayed the restoration,” he said.

Sonia Bagga, a resident of Sector 79, said, “There was no electricity the entire night. With strong winds and rain, it became extremely difficult, especially for families with children and elderly members.”

Residents in some areas said they witnessed frequent outages even after the restoration work was done.

Zirakpur witnessed major disruption after a 66 kV power grid was affected by the strong winds. The supply was restored on Saturday morning but some pockets continued to face disruptions till the afternoon.

In Chandigarh, several areas were without electricity for 10 to 12 hours. According to a spokesperson of Chandigarh Power Distribution Limited (CPDL), 3,144 complaints related to power outages were received on Friday, more than six times the number reported on a normal day. Most of them were resolved on the same day. On Saturday, 905 such complaints were received, of which over 95% were addressed within the stipulated timeline, the spokesperson stated.

Residents of Raipur Khurd stated that power supply in their area was restored around 8.30 am, after nearly 23 hours. Residents of a colony in Sector 29 said that it took more than 15 hours for the authorities to restore power in their area as most of the electricity poles were uprooted after a tree fell on overhead cables.

Expect rain on Jan 27, 29: IMD

Chandigarh
The city is expected to see further rain on Tuesday and Wednesday due to a fresh Western Disturbance, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has stated. Friday’s rain reduced the night temperature to 5.3° Celsius on Saturday. At 5.3°C, the minimum temperature was 2.1°C below normal. However, before the rain spell on Friday, the minimum temperature was 4.8°C (January 22). The lowest it has gone this season was 2.8°C on January 13.

The lower night temperature is likely to continue in the coming days, IMD’s Chandigarh director Surender Paul said. “Due to clear weather at night and the movement of cold north-westerly winds, a fall in temperature is expected. Further, the snowfall in the hilly reaches of Himachal Pradesh will also have a cooling effect on the city,” he mentioned.

Despite sunny weather during most of the day, the maximum temperature rose slightly from 13.5°C on Friday to 14.7°C on Saturday, 3.6°C below normal. While sunny weather will continue on Sunday, maximum temperature is likely to continue below normal.

In the next three days, maximum temperature will remain around 18°C while minimum temperature will remain around 7°C.

The rain brought the Air Quality Index (AQI) into the satisfactory category. As per the daily AQI bulletin released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the city’s AQI was 78.