In this colony, voltage dips to 30V

Odisha Sun Times Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Apr 30:

The assurance of the Odisha government that there will be no power cuts this summer means little to the residents of the Housing Board Colony-I in Dumuduma here.

“There is power but it’s worse than a power cut situation because the voltage is as low as 30V and the max, 140 V during the day. How can you live with that in this harsh summer?” – asked a housewife here who says that fans don’t  produce air and the lights are as dim as candle light.

The residents in this colony which comes under the existing Dumduma electrical sub station at Dumuduma, Electrical Section under Sub-Division, BCDD-II have been pleading with the CESU and Energy department to install a new substation.

Ex-army personnel Bidyadhar Nayak who lives here has been running from pillar to post to ensure the authorities take pity on their plight and do something about it.

“ In May last year JE Dumuduma carried out a field visit and realised our difficulties . He sent a proposal to SDO (Elect.) Khandagiri for installation of an additional 100 KV substation vide his office letter No 430 dated 27th May 2013. Further, SDO Khandagiri after having his statutory survey recommended the same to Executive Engineer, BCDD-II vide his letter No. 1541 dated 12 June 2013. Nearly a year has passed but our problem has not been solved, says Nayak.

Nayak has written a letter of appeal to the secretary-cum-commissioner, Energy department to intervene and help hundreds of families who live in the colony.

This situation, however, is not limited to this Dumduma colony, there are any number of areas in the state capital where worn out substations and faulty transmission have led to pathetically low voltage and despite several petitions and complaints, nothing seems to have changed.