Agra running in 3-hour shifts, courtesy UPPCL

Vijay Upadhyay
Agra. Earlier, it was only movie theatres that ran in a three-hour shift through the day but these days, the entire city of Agra is being forced to operate in three-hour shifts, courtesy the UP Power Corporation Ltd.

Owing to the environmental sensitivity of the Taj Trepezium Zone, the Supreme Court had issued stringent directives to the UP goverenment to ensure 24 hours uninterrupted power supply in Agra notwithstanding the current power crisis looming over the entire state.

But despite the Supreme Court directions, while the Taj city was receiving less than 18 hours of electricity earlier, the situation has suddenly taken a downward plunge over the past fifteen days with the blowing up of a 40 MVA transformer located at the Power Corporation's Sikandra based 220KV sub-station due to a minor circuit break up in the town immersing almost three-quarters of the city in complete darkness.

Ever since the transformer blew up, the power crisis in the city has become unbearable, with the local power corporation officials unable to source a replacement for the burnt transformer in the entire state. But this inability of the power corporation officials to source a replacement for the transformer has thrown the entire city's urban lifestyle out of gear while raising the pollution levels in the city to the extreme due to the incessant operation of thousands of diesel generators.

Currently, the electricity supply in the city is being run in shifts of three hours, with the UPPCL segregating the entire city into blocks where the power is supplied in a three-hour roster to each area all through the day and night, that could hardly suit anyone, resulting in an increased operation of diesel gensets even 500 meters away from the Taj Mahal threatening the monument's structural safety.

According to the power corporation officials, it was not easy to seek a replacement for a Rs. 3 crore transformer so soon but one such transformer had been located in Meerut that was still being tested for its operability and if found suitable to operate under such a heavy load that the earlier transformer faced, it could be brought to Agra.

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