Power woes deepen in Bandipora amid cold weather conditions

Bandipora, Nov 21: People in north Kashmir's Bandipora are fuming over erratic power supply, and long outages amid cold weather conditions.

Locals while sharing the frustration with Greater Kashmir said that the power department is resorting to long power cuts, and outages are "drastically painful and relentless amid cold weather conditions."

Officials cited reasons which included "extra load" and "electricity deficit."

The residents from several villages including people from the main town in district headquarters too are frustrated due to the "persistent issue" from almost a month saying, the "crisis has deepend many folds."

Despite smart meters and effective metering and anti hooking infrastructure in place in the majority of the town area and some villages, locals say there is no "let up in power woes."

"I have noticed the power department resorting to cuts for hours together, there is no schedule being followed," Rizwan Hassan, a local said.

He said his work from home job was taking a hit, although he was able to manage a backup power via inverter, he expressed scepticism over those who are not able to manage the backup power or don't have resources to get one.

Elsewhere, like in the city, he said he had noticed a proper schedule being observed in most of the instances but in comparison to that the Power Department in Bandipora had "no accountability".

"For several days in my area the power supply is off for suppose 1:00 to 4:00 PM, and when we expect supply to be smooth for the expected scheduled time, the power department resorts to erratic cuts at five minute intervals followed by long outages, which is frustrating," another resided Faheem Muhammad from Nowpora area said.

Hassan who resides in Naaz colony said he had raised the concerns with the department but they were suggesting it was "due to maintenance."

He questioned the timing of the department, suggesting the department should have been well prepared before winter, expressing doubts over departments "clarity or excuses."

Several people in various villages of Bandipora from plains to upper belt, like Arin, Sumlar, Nadihal, Ajar and several other areas echoed the same concerns saying they were annoyed by the power outages.

Notably, under various schemes the Power Department has also built a system for effective metering to ensure high voltage power while minimising the load. However, locals said the outages continue despite the system being put in place for some years now.

"With prevailing cold weather conditions, regular power supply becomes more than a necessity, and leaving consumers high and dry is not an option," Hassan added.

Another local expressed frustration that the Power Department in Bandipora has no mechanism to notify consumers about power schedule and outages, suggesting this should be followed regularly via the app or other sources.

Notably, some villages in Gurez's Dawar, which are 1600 households, also receive electricity from Bandipora's Pautshai Grid station from November 2023 and although non metered, the areas are too reeling under darkness.

Small as well as big business owners too shared their concerns saying it was impacting client or customer relationship while at the same time plunging them into loss.

Dilshad Kawoosa, Executive Engineer at JKPDCL Bandipora told Greater Kashmir that the load had increased amid cold weather, while there was shortage from the backend.

"We have 93 MW agreeable load," the officer said, adding that the area currently required 163 MW.

He expressed helplessness amid the deficit while also appealing for judicious use of electricity in winter months to help reduce the outages.

He said there were "several reasons" the department resorts to "curtailments" which was apart from transformers not being able to handle the extra load . He said another reason was the electricity deficit, which added to the problem.

However, when questioned about areas with efficient metering too witnessing outages, he said hooking was the reason.