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LUCKNOW Despite a drop in temperature, Lucknow continued to reel under prolonged power cuts on Sunday night. With electricity demand at around 1950 mw, widespread outages reported in the city were attributed to rostering by over 30 sub stations as a precautionary measure to protect overloaded transformers from failure.
According to officials of Lucknow Electricity Supply Administration (LESA), the rostering was carried out to manage the load and avoid damage to critical infrastructure. “While the temperature has gone down, infrastructure remains under stress due to previous overloads. We are trying to balance supply to prevent long-term damage to equipment,” said a senior official.
However, many citizens were unconvinced. Localities such as Aliganj, Jankipuram, Rajajipuram, Balaganj, Sarojini Nagar, Manas Nagar, Ashiana Sector J and H, LDA Colony (Kanpur Road), Thakurganj, Daliganj, Triveni Nagar, parts of Indira Nagar and Konark City faced extended power cuts ranging from two to five hours.
Further compounding the issue was the damage in newly installed aerial bunched cables (ABC) in areas like Daliganj, Yaseenganj, causing delays in restoring supply. “We are aware that the ABC wires faced issues at several points, especially where tree branches and external elements have come in contact. Repairs are underway,” said another official.
In Faizullaganj, residents reported power interruptions every 45 minutes throughout the night, severely affecting their sleep and daily activities. At Mahanagar’s Subhash Park, the 11 KV Raheem Nagar feeder developed a fault at 11:45pm, with supply restored only by 4am. Angry residents reached the substation after repeated calls went unanswered, resulting in a heated exchange with officials, though the situation remained under control.
A five-hour-long outage was caused due to an overloaded feeder in Shiv Nagar Ahibaranpur with residents expressing anger over the delay in response.
Chief engineer (Residency) Ravi Agarwal said officials were monitoring the situation closely and every complaint was attended during the night.
