Blackout grips Ukhrul; power situation still precarious
Source: Hueiyen News Service / R Lester Makang

Ukhrul, June 13 2015 : The current blackout sweeping across Ukhrul district since Thursday morning has once again reaffirmed that power situation in the district continues to be quite precarious despite the Government's repeated assurance of improving power supply in all the hill districts of the State.

The district, on the contrary, is witnessing increasing power interruptions with frequent cases of outage each spanning several days to weeks on end owing to some technical glitches or the other in recent months.

At the same time, considering the concerned department's apparent lack of expertise in detecting points of defect in a time saving manner, there is a general apprehension that consumers may face more outages with the onset of monsoon season.

The whole district is currently reeling under a protracted power cut since morning of June 10 the day when results of the recent MHAADC Election 2015 was declared.

"We are in no position to help because the defect has reportedly occurred at 132 KV Substation located at Yaingangpokpi in Imphal, " an official of MSPDCL Ukhrul Division told Hueiyen Lanpao on Saturday evening.

He further informed that a major transformer has reportedly broken down following collapse of a power tower at Yaingangpokpi due to heavy downpour during the past few days, while adding that consequently transmission lines leading to Ukhrul town as well as Tolloi and Kamjong areas have been disrupted.

"We cannot say when the supply would be restored since it is not in our jurisdiction but repairing work by the concerned substation to fix the defects is going on," he said.

Meanwhile, due to prolonged absence of power in their houses, most Ukhrulites are making a beeline for outlets in the town's market which provide mobile battery recharging through oil fed generators.

One operator at Phungreitang bazaar said that he is giving this service since Friday in the interest of his customers and not as a business, adding that it is hard to make profit due to rising price of fuels.

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