Power outages were reported in several pockets of the city on Tuesday night and Wednesday, adding to the discomfort caused by the hot and humid weather.
Police said they had to send teams to at least five locations in the city on Wednesday from where outages were reported and there were apprehensions of law and order problem.
Complaints of power outage came from pockets in Behala, Alipore, Dum Dum, Belgachia, Garia, Dover Lane, Kasba and Howrah on Wednesday.
The maximum temperature recorded in the Alipore Met office on Wednesday, which serves as the official record for Kolkata, was 38.7 degrees, three notches above normal. The minimum temperature was 30.6 degrees, which was three degrees above normal, too.
The maximum relative humidity in the city on Wednesday was 90 per cent and the minimum relative humidity, which is marker of the moisture content in the air around afternoon, was 39 per cent, Met department officials said.
According to AccuWeather, a weather forecasting agency, Kolkata’s temperature at 3pm was 35 degrees, but the real-feel was 43 degrees.
Residents of neighbourhoods that went without power said the outages only compounded the assault inflicted by the heat-humidity combine.
Many expressed their anger through social media.
“Again my power supply is down and I just spoke to your call based customer support, that man hang up the phone saying transformation (read transformer) fault in your area. He didn’t even bother to provide me “Docket number” in this regard. We had no power supply since 12 am to 4-30 am Today and again we are out of electricity. Send you senior engineer right away,” Shashwati Bose, a resident of Dum Dum, wrote on her Facebook timeline on Wednesday morning.
Another Kolkatan complained of congestion in CESC helplines and the problems she faced while reporting power outages at home.
“I tried to register a complaint through the CESC helpline 1912 but there was congestion. I could register my complaint only in the fifth attempt,” said Ankita Mookherjee, a resident of Haltu in Kasba.
There was a power outage in the neighbourhood between 3pm and 4pm on Wednesday, she said. CESC officials said the primary reason for the outages was use of unsanctioned load that led to tripping and outage in the whole neighbourhood.
“Despite our continuous appeal to use electronic gadgets, especially air-conditioners, only within the sanctioned load, many are using beyond their sanctioned load. That is the primary reason for power outages in this weather,” a senior CESC official said.
Places adjoining Kolkata reported temperatures higher than what the AliporeMet office recorded on Wednesday.
In Dum Dum and Barrackpore, the maximum temperature touched 40 degrees on Wednesday. In Salt Lake and Howrah, the maximum was 39.1 and 39.5, respectively.
Met officials ruled out any respite from the ongoing spell at least till June 10.
A cyclonic circulation has taken shape over the Myanmar coast, said a Met official. Some clouds from the system reached Kolkata on Wednesday afternoon. But the bulk of the clouds went to Bangladesh and the Northeast, he said.