[Assam] From ToI

[Chan Mahanta]

*** Was it hard to foresee?

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Gurgaon in gloom, battling a power crisis
4 Mar 2008, 1802 hrs IST,Dipak Kumar Dash,TNN
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Gurgaon, the fading dream of a Millennium City, is battling a power 
crisis that has seen power cuts up to 12 hours in winter. And now 
with summer on us, there is a mad scramble for inverters and 
generators, an expensive proposition besides being unfriendly to the 
environment.

Sixty-two-year-old Vijay Malhotra, a resident of DLF Phase-IV, says 
living in Gurgaon is a big drain on resources. "We had to buy a 
generator just a week back - I invested Rs 3 lakh," he says. "That's 
a huge investment besides the cost of operating it daily. Besides, I 
still pay a huge electricity bill. The crisis became so acute last 
year that my daughter-in-law had to shift to Delhi. I hold the 
government responsible."

Most residents of Gurgaon had moved for a better quality of life. 
They now feel cheated. And what rankles most is the fact the crisis 
is entirely man-made. That's the grime below the glitter. Developers 
have been issued licences at random and even the severe power crunch 
has not deterred the government from mocking the people by clearing a 
master plan to enlarge Gurgaon to three times its present size. Most 
plans for setting up plants have a 2009-2010 deadline and hold little 
hope for those who are now cursing the day they moved to Gurgaon.

There is going to be more growth without infrastructure till the city 
bloats to a point of collapse, people say. And officials are aware of 
this. They have thrown up their hands after pointing out that the 
demand for power in Gurgaon is increasing by 28% and availability is 
much less than requirement.

"The combined electricity requirement of Gurgaon and Faridabad is 
equivalent to the total power demand of Himachal Pradesh and meeting 
that demand is a huge task," says Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitaran Nigam 
(DHBVN) managing director Vijayendra Kumar. "We are hopeful of 
getting at least 500 MW for entire Haryana in the next three months 
from the Yamuna Nagar plant. That additional supply will bring some 
relief to urban areas."

"The major cause of the crisis is non-availability of power. The 
present demand of Gurgaon is 1.2 crore units a day and we get only 75 
lakh units," explains superintending engineer A K Jain of the Nigam. 
"Additional supply from Yamuna Nagar should bring some relief."

Haryana has about 4,068 MW of power available daily of which it 
generates only 1,587 MW. The state wants to generate an additional 
5,000 MW daily by 2010 but that's three years away. In the first 
phase, a 300-MW capacity unit has become operational in Yamuna Nagar 
and a second unit of same capacity will be synchronised this month. 
How this power is distributed remains to be seen with many political 
and farm lobbies at work.

About 1,200 MW will be made available from the Hissar thermal power 
plant. The first unit of 600 MW will be operational in December 2009 
and the second in March 2010. The state will also get 750 MW from the 
upcoming 1500 MW Aravali plant in Jhajjar. The three units - each of 
500 MW - are scheduled to be completed in April, June and August of 
2010.

So, there is no immediate relief in sight and all hopes for now are 
pinned on the supply from the Yamuna Nagar plant. Official estimates 
show that during non-peak hours Gurgaon's power demand is 450 MW 
while during peak hours it's about 550 MW. At any given time, the 
power supply falls short by at least 100 MW.

In the neighbouring capital of Delhi, there are only two categories 
of power consumers - domestic and non-domestic (commercial and 
industrial). But in Gurgaon, there are three - agricultural, domestic 
and non-domestic. The agriculture sector consumes 20-25% of the power 
available, domestic consumers get a 40% share and non-domestic 
consumers another 40%.

Consumers have learnt the hard way not to trust officials. "We had a 
tough time even during the winter and then they had said that only 
winter rain could bring some relief. They will come up with some 
other excuse to pass the buck. Actually, they are clueless and don't 
know how to deal with the situation," says B S Tripathy, a resident 
of Sector-23. ==