At a time when the temperature is hovering around 42-43 degrees Celsius, the unprecedented power crisis has badly affected the normal life besides trade and industry in Coal Town Dhanbad for over a week.

The pitiable state of affairs can be assumed from the fact that around 12-14 hours of power crisis is being witnessed in urban areas of the district while rural areas are witnessing over 16 hours of crisis.

Increased power consumption during the summer, short supply of power due to load shedding by Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) as well as the Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL) are primarily responsible for the crisis.

Notably, the power consumption demand which remains at around 212 to 230 megawatts during the winter has increased to around 300 megawatts with the onset of summer.

Expressing disgust over the prevailing state of affairs, Binod Kushwaha, a sales representative of a pharmaceutical company said, “Though the district administration had announced six hours of power cut yesterday due to Ram Navami from 4 pm to 10 pm, the residents faced frequent power cuts for the entire day.”

“With school timing of children being rescheduled from 6 am in the morning, they need proper rest from early hours of the night to wake up early in the morning, but the power crisis is affecting their performance in classes,” said Kushwaha.

Ashok Chaurasia, a garment trader at Binod Market in Hirapur said, “At a time when the business is at its lowest ebb, the power crisis has further affected our trade incurring extra costs for operating generators, etc.”

BN Singh, a hard coke factory owner of Dhanbad who is also the president of the Industries and Commerce Association said, “We are facing coal shortage, the main raw material for our production, and the power crisis has further added to the woes of the industry owners as a result of which many factories are on the verge of closure.”

“The worst part of the power cut is that it has no fixed time, as a result of which our production is getting affected during the day time causing a double blow to us as our workers have to remain idle after coming to the factory and we have to pay them without work,” said Singh.

Contacted, Shailendra Nath Dwivedi, Executive Engineer of JBVNL, said, “Due to increased power demand, we are also compelled to carry out load-shedding besides the load shedding by DVC, although we are trying to minimize the discomfiture of the common people.”