Teen Hurt as Tree Branches Fall on Him

Fund is meant for PSPCL to develop infrastructure such as substations, distribution lines, and transmission lines

- Priyanka Thakur

MOHALI: Imagine stepping into your home in pitch black to find that the power is out. You wait for hours, unable to use any appliance, sweating it out without fans and air conditioners, phone battery dying out, but there is no sign of power being restored.

For years, this has been the reality for Mohali residents. On Wednesday night too, after the storm, large parts of the districts were left without power for extended periods.

In Sectors 91 and 94, power supply remained suspended for nearly 20 hours, and was restored only on Thursday evening. Aerocity, Industrial Area Phase 8-B, and Zirakpur witnessed outages lasting up to 15 hours.

All this, due to Greater Mohali Area Development Authority's (GMADA) failure to pay ₹100 crore to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) for the development of crucial infrastructure such as substations, distribution lines, and transmission networks.

Mohali's power demand surges to 1,500 megawatts in peak summers, but it has a capacity of only 1,400 megawatts.

This leads to overloaded transformers, which often break down, resulting in outages lasting from 4 to 8 hours. Several 66 KV grids, including those in Mullanpur, Bhabhat, Phase 9 (Mohali), and Gillco (Kharar), are currently overloaded, leading to regular rotational cuts. Similar issues persist at grids in Tuer village, Mullanpur, and Seonk due to line overloading.

As per GMADA's undertaking to the PSPCL in 2014, all charges related to 66 KV substations, 66 KV transmission lines, 11 KV distribution lines, and upgrade of 220 KV substations, are to be borne by the development authority within its jurisdiction. Accordingly, PSPCL has sent several reminders and held multiple meetings with GMADA for the release of funds to the tune of ₹100 crore, but no tangible progress has been made.