the goan I network
MAPUSA
After shortage of water, now comes power outage and load shedding in Mapusa and parts of Bardez.
A day before the Chaturthi festival, Mapusa and surrounding villages was shocked to face power outages and load shedding.
The city suffered power cuts twice for almost one-and-a-half hours in early morning and then again at noon as well as intermittent power outages throughout Sunday.
Bordering villages of Assagao, Guirim, Parra and Siolim also encountered power cuts and load shedding.
In fact, the electricity department began implementing load shedding drill for Mapusa and other villages from August 27 when one of the four main transformers at Mapusa sub-station failed.
Peeved at load shedding in various parts of the city, locals slammed the government for failing to spare its people even during festivals.
“Although the government makes tall claims of providing regular power, the reality is that people are reeling under regular load shedding for the past six days. At least during the festival the government should have taken some precaution to avoid this hardship on its citizens,” said Jawaharlal Shetye, a resident of Khorlim, Mapusa.
Angry residents did not spare the Power Minister, Nilesh Cabral too.
“While we have been subjected to constant power cuts our electricity bills have been shooting up. And out power minister has been repeatedly mouthing that power tariff in Goa is the cheapest in the country,” said Mahesh Rane, another resident of Mapusa.
Upset over frequent tripping of power supply, consumers were also agitated with officials who failed to respond to complaints.
“We are upset over the frequent power cuts since last Tuesday. We are forced to bear the brunt of load shedding three to four times a day. Several complaints to the department have yielded no result,” said an angry resident of Assagao.
Sources in the power department informed that since a spare 10 MVA transformer was not available, a lower capacity transformer of 6.3 MVA has been installed instead at the Mapusa sub-station.
“There will be load shedding until equal capacity transformer is replaced at the sub-station,” the source said.
However, the engineers in the Mapusa power department attributed the Sunday power cut to monsoon rigours.
“There were issues with the jumpers which opened at several places in Tivim High Tension line on account of rains. We had to take a power shutdown for the entire city to rectify the problem,” said Savio Ferrao, officiating in place of Assistant Engineer, Subhash Parsekar who is on leave.
Incidentally, “open jumpers” and “feeder is faulty” have been the most common refrain of the officials when inquired about power failures.
The erratic power supply was best described by Shreha Dhargalkar a Bardez-based activist on a WhatsApp group.
“Hya favti Diwalik serial light ghalpachi garaz na, amchi light automatic dis bhar piki piki jait asa, thanks to electricity department. (This Diwali we don’t need to decorate our houses with serial lights. Our lights will keep on blinking, thanks to the electricity department),” Dhargalkar said.
With the department installing a lower capacity transformer at the Mapusa sub-station, residents in Mapusa and surrounding villages may have to just bear with power outages this Chaturthi.
