Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, Dec 19: It is clear now that the Electricity Department have lost total control over power shortage situation.
Addressing a press conference at the Megapode Nest Resort this evening at 04:30pm, the Secretary Power, Mr Sanjeev Khirwar said that the Electricity Department has no control over load shedding.
“There are something which can be controlled but as of now we have no control over the load shedding till Feb-March, 2018,” Power Secretary said.
Mr Sanjeev Khirwar said that presently the peak load requirement of the city is 36 to 38 MW but at present the Electricity Department has only 29.5 MW generation.
He said that the department has floated a tender in the month of June-July of 15MW power generation to an outsourced company but after doing all sorts of things the company in the month of November has backed out for doing the project and therefore for a couple of months especially in February-March the general public will have to face the problem of Load shedding.
He said that another tender has been floated again in war footage and tomorrow the tender will be opened but even though it will be taking time.
Mr Khirwar has requested the general public to use power judiciously by using LED and by using the Air Conditioner at a Lower temperature only when necessary. “We have also instructed the Hoteliers and commercial establishments to use their own DG sets during peak load hours,” said Mr Khirwar.
Answering to a question of a media person of power wastage in the Government Departments, the Power Secretary, Mr Khirwar said that he will issue a circular to all the Government Departments in this regard and also will monitor it.
“We are personally very unhappy in this regard but our endeavour is to provide 24/7 uninterrupted power to the Public as already it’s the target of Government of India that by 2022 there would not be any power outage,” Mr Khirwar said.
The Deputy Commissioner, South Andaman, Mr Udit Prakash Rai and the Superintendent Engineer, Electricity Department, Mr Uttam Kumar Paul along with other senior officers of the Electricity Department were also present during the press conference.
