Imphal, December 28 2009: With only 40 megawatt of power being received as against the actual requirement of 129 megawatt during the peak hour, Power Department is not in a position to feed the power sub-stations even for four hours during day and night.

According to an official source, despite being a major department of the State Government, the Power Department has been receiving only 40 megawatt of power during the peak hour when the actual requirement is 129 megawatt.

This has become a cause of headache for the engineers of the Department in deciding where and when to distribute the available power.

However, load shedding schedule during night time is being maintained as the power requirement comes down drastically.

Informing that the quantity of power being received during the day and the night time these days are being fed from Loktak Hydro Electricity Power Project and the DI Line connecting Imphal and Dimapur, the source disclosed that during the peak hour, 15 to 20 megawatt is received on an average from Hydro Electric Power Project and 20 to 25 megawatt from the ImphalDimapur DI Line.

As of today (December 28), in all 44 megawatt of power are received from Loktak Hydro Electric Power Project and the Imphal-Dimapur DI line.

Receiving power anything less than this quantity would make it difficult to ensure normal supply of power during peak hour to various substations, the official source said.

The source explained that the main reason behind receiving very less quantity of power in Manipur is due to the fact that most of the power projects in the Northeast are hydel projects and the generation of power has come down due to low water volume in the current lean season.

The prevailing situation of power supply in the State is said to have given a serious impact on the business units and other automobile workshops located in and around Khwairamband Bazar of Imphal.

On any working day, these business units have to wait for the light to come and get to work for only 2 to 3 hours in a day.

Some of the bigger and better positioned business units and automobile workshops have to also either purchase power generator of their own or hire it from others to keep the work going.

On the other hand, although installation of street lamps along the National Highways has been completed some years back, the same are yet to be fed with power for lighting during night time.

Installation of street lamps along the stretch of National Highway 39 from Imphal to the main gate of Manipur University as well as from Imphal to Koirengei and again upto Airport and Sanjenthong line along the National Highway 150 stretch has been completed a long time back.

But these lamps are yet to be lit during the night time as there has been no suitable transformer, according to another source from the Power Department.

It is said that Planning and Development Authority is responsible for the maintenance of these street lamps.

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