The city of Bengaluru has its fair share of civic problems – pothole-ridden roads, broken footpaths, traffic jams, encroached lakes, the list is long. And if you thought things would improve in 2018, you are mistaken.
The Bengaluru Electric Supply Corporation (BESCOM) announced on Thursday that there will be “intermittent power failures” till the end of the month during the day. These power cuts will take place between 10am to 6pm, BESCOM has said.
An assistant engineer with BESCOM told TNM that this move is aimed at improving the power supply in the summer.
“From Hebbal to LR Bande station, the capacity of the conductors have to be increased. The KPTC (Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation) officials will work on this from morning to evening. During this replacement work, all the three to four sub-stations in each section will stop functioning. Since the 66KV main line will be off during this exercise, no changeover can be arranged and hence, the power cut will be in large areas,” the Besom official said.
“Also, with older cables being replaced with high-tension low-sag (HTLS) cables, we can give maximum capacity to the conductor and power interruption will be minimised,” he added.
These power outages will affect more than 300 locations in the city covering the entire northern and eastern part of greater Bengaluru.
The neighbourhoods in the eastern division include Banaswadi, Indiranagar, Shivajinagar, Kammanahalli, Hennur and RT Nagar.
Laggare, Chokkasandra, Heggana Halli, Kupusswamy Layout, KG Halli, Nagawara, NJK Garments, Byrankunte are some of the parts that will be affected in the northern division.
You can read the full list here.
The last major power outage in the city was in mid-December 2017 when many parts of Bengaluru, including parts of the central business district, faced unscheduled power cuts.
Among the worst-affected areas were MG Road, Indiranagar, Shanthinagar, Jayanagar, Old Airport Road, Infantry Road, Victoria Road, Frazer Town, Marathahalli, HRBR Layout and Koramangala.
Then officials had said that “technical snags” had caused the power cuts in addition to minor maintenance issues like faulty cables or feeders.
A more severe problem had occurred in November when the state was facing a shortage of coal.