GURGAON IN GLOOM

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 inyerters 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, 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 brtter quality of life. They now feel cheated. And what rankles most is the fact the crisis is entirely manmade. 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 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 nonavilability 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 avilable 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 ayilable from the hissar thermal power plant. The first unit of 600 MW will be operationl in December 2009 and the second in March 2010. the state will also get 750 MW 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 sigh and all hopes for now are pinned on the supply from the Yamuna Nagar plant. Official estimastes show that during non-peak hours Gurgaon’s power demand peak hours it’s about 550 MW. At any given time, the power supply falls short by 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 aailable,domestic consumers another 40%.
Consumers hae learnt the hard way not trust officials.”We had a tough time een 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 BS Tripathy, a resident of Sector-23.
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Courtesy:Times City Tuesday march 4 ,2008