Many areas in Bengaluru engulfed in darkness as Bescom suffers infrastructure damage
The Hindu
When it rained incessantly last week, consumers were happy about not facing many power cuts in Bengaluru. However, this happiness was short-lived as many parts of the city were engulfed in darkness on Monday and the first half of Tuesday due to the infrastructural damage that occurred in the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) jurisdiction.
When it rained incessantly last week, consumers were happy about not facing many power cuts in Bengaluru. However, this happiness was short-lived as many parts of the city were engulfed in darkness on Monday and the first half of Tuesday due to the infrastructural damage that occurred in the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) jurisdiction.
Yelahanka, HSR Layout, BTM Layout Marathahalli, AECS Layout, Sahakaranagar and Chandapura were some of the areas which experienced power cuts between Monday and Tuesday evening for over four to six hours after it began to rain.
“We were all surprised when it rained so much last week and yet no power cuts occurred. But the happiness was short-lived as power supply was cut off as soon as it began raining on Monday,” said Ramkumar T., a resident of Yelahanka.
“Is this a joke? There has been no power for over two hours on a weekday. How will we work? How will the water pumps run? Why do you harass us daily? Don’t we pay our bills on time?” asked a resident of BTM Layout on social media platform X.
The Bescom helpline, 1912, also received more calls than usual on Tuesday, due to the rainfall on Monday, according to the officials. “We received a greater number of calls as well as sustained more damage to our infrastructure due to the rains,” said a senior official. The helpline’s server received over 35,000 calls out of which 16,790 were attended to and 8,512 complaints were registered. Most of them were resolved by Tuesday evening.
However, the power supply company also underwent losses worth ₹44. 64 lakh on Monday alone in Bengaluru Urban district when unprecedented rains battered the city. While 30 electrical poles were damaged on the day amounting to losses of ₹3.36 lakh, 20 transformers were also damaged costing around ₹40.74 lakh.
Similarly on Sunday, around 15 electrical pole and eight transformers were damaged in Bengaluru Urban resulting in losses worth ₹14.15 lakh.