Santanu Saraswati
Kolkata, April 21—Amidst few hundred questions making way in the mind of nearly 22.5 lakhs consumers about the credibility of the fact finding team, the state power department on Tuesday announced a seven-member committee to find out the reasons of last Sunday’s power fiasco that sunk the entire city into darkness for more than 10 hours.
Though neither the state power minister, Mrinal Banerjee, nor the additional chief secretary, power department, Sunil Mitra, raised any question, many a official of the department are in quagmire over the justification of selecting the executive director, CESC, Dipesh Guha to head the committee, when the privately run power utility was at fault.
“We don’t expect an objective outcome of this issue. How can an executive director of a company heads a committee which itself was at fault? This is a mere eyewash for the public, nothing more than that,” an official with the state-run West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) told Hindustan Times on the basis of anonymity.
On the other hand, power situation in the state slid further downward with a shortfall recorded more than 750-mega watts in the state. While power generation units of Durgapur Projects Limited (DPL) and West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited’s (WBPDCL) unit at Sagardighi stopped generation since Monday night, a major technical snag compelled CESC’s Titagarh unit stopping generation since Tuesday afternoon. Even WBSEDCL’s attempt to import electricity from the Rajasthan State Electricity Board (RSEB) and Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board (MPSEB) failed as they had more than normal demand for power due to summer.
Leaving apart the regular routine of long hours of power cut in Kolkata and adjoining areas in Howrah and North 24 Pargana district, unprecedented thought it might sound a large area of Salt Lake went without electricity for more than five hours since Monday night. Some of the areas like BJ Block, however, had to go through this ordeal in the afternoon till evening. There were neither electricity nor water supply in the state-much publicised Silicon Valley of Bengal.
While demand for electricity in CESC’s area was 1490-mega watts, all-time highest in the past five years, it was more than 3300-mega watts in the districts. “Our engineers are trying their best to restore generation at Titagarh,”—while this was what the CESC’s spokesperson told Hindustan Times, the ghost of Chinese-technology had again taken toll on WBPDCL’s Sagardighi and DPL’s unit in Durgapur.
Nearly a lakh consumers living in areas like Tollygunge, Naktala, Jadavpur, Kasba, Kashi Bose Lane, Maniktala Main Road, Belgatchia, Beleghata, Ramrajatala, Shibpur, Bajey Shibpur, Behala, Diamond Harbour Road, James Long Sarani, Shashi Bhusan Mukherjee Road, Prince Anwar Shah Road, Prince Gulam Mohammad Shah Road, Golf Garden, Survey Park, went without electricity for than three hours in this blistering summer on Tuesday. CESC, however, proved successful in keeping the supply of state run hospitals and metro services.
CESC’s release confirmed that the power utility didn’t import electricity from any private power trader to cater to the need of Kolkata.
EOM
santanu_saraswati@hotmail.com
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