Ghaziabad, April 23 (Inditop) The towns of Ghaziabad and Noida, adjoining the national capital, are facing a major crisis with long power cuts throughout the day and night. Several areas are also facing an acute water shortage.
Factories have been asked to remain closed for four hours every evening when demand during for power is at its peak.
Amit Makkar, a casting unit owner at Bulandshahr Road Industrial Area in Ghaziabad, said: “Apart from the scheduled 8 p.m.-6 a.m. power cut, electricity goes off any time before and after it at unscheduled hours, hitting our production badly. There are some forging units that require regular flow of electricity and at adequate voltage for their operations but in the absence of power, they are suffering immensely.”
Terming the present power supply situation to Ghaziabad as “extremely grave”, Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd’s (UPPCL) superintending engineer S.N. Yadav said: “The industries have been asked by Lucknow to cease their production during night. We have received many complaints from industrialists but we are helpless as there is scanty supply of power from the state capital.”
The ongoing general elections have also forced neighbouring states to halt power supply to Uttar Pradesh, as they are focussing on supply in their own states. The state is not getting any power from them presently, he said.
“We are facing a demand of about 575 MW from the district and are trying to supply an equivalent amount, provided we get sufficient power from Lucknow. The current crisis is not due to regional factors but due to less generation of power in the state,” Yadav added.
According to sources in the UPPCL, apart from some existing ailing units, some more units of Anpara power station have been shut down due to which current power supply in the state is reduced.
Ghaziabad is struggling for power with outages lasting for 10 hours in the urban pockets and 18 hours in the semi-urban zones. Posh areas like Raj Nagar, Kavi Nagar, Chiranjeev Vihar, Gandhi Nagar and Vaishali are going powerless the whole night long.
Areas like Raj Nagar, Kavi Nagar, Nehru Nagar and Gandhi Nagar and Vasundhara, Vaishali and Surya Nagar in trans-Hindon are also facing an acute water shortage. Residents in these areas complained of no water supply in the morning and evening hours. Long queues of residents were seen in many colonies waiting for their chance to draw water from the corporation water tanks.
In Noida, there ios no power for four hours a day as the electricity demand has shot up significantly. The town is witnessing a demand of 490-560 MW. Residents in many sectors are also facing trouble getting water.
