BHOPAL: The unbearable heat of May has extended into June with Bhopalis searching the skies for a trace of clouds. The intense heat was excarbated by the water crisis and unscheduled power cuts in the state capital.
"It was a week when there was no water supply, and neither did the administration arrange for an alternative. The BMC had informed that there would be no water supply from May 12 for three days due to the construction work of new Kolar pipline, but it took about six days for water supply to resume. I tried all the numbers i could find for a water tanker, but nobody picked up the phone except chief engineer, water works at BMC, Mr Pawar. He assured me help but he too, couldn't arrange a tanker," said Anil Sanghi, a resident of E-6, Arera Colony.
As 60 % of the city, which receives water from the Kolar pipeline, went without water supply for more than 3-4 days, the political establishment also took note of the situation, Minister in-charge for Bhopal Bhupendra Singh and later chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also stepped in, asking the BMC brass to resume water supply in the city at the earliest and till the time it happens, make alternative arrangements for water supply in areas, where there has been no water supply due to laying of Kolar pipeline.
A BMC official said ."Kolar pipeline has been there for 40 years and it has developed leakages from several points. So, there was indeed a need to lay a fresh pipeline. A pipeline parrelar to the old one was being laid and it was supposed to take 60 hours. But, it took a lot more time than that, leading to a hue & cry over the water crisis in the city. I think the situation could have been better handled."
Water crisis in more than half the city due to laying of new Kolar pipeline was not the only occasion causing hue & cry among people, towards the end of the month of May, supply in areas where Narmada water is supplied was also closed forthree days due to maintenance work at pumping stations which bring the Narmada water to Bhopal city, leading to another round of water crisis but in different areas this time round.
Pre-monsoon maintenance work by MPEB, which is still continuing, leading to prolonged power cuts in different areas turn-by-turn also took its toll on the people in the extreme heat condition in the month of May, it came as a huge source of irritation particularly for students preparing for exams or those working from home even if it was for a day. Besides, power outages due to maintenance work could be for a day but the month of May also saw unscheduled power cuts in different localities of the city at different times.
The then general manager of central region power discom,Amrit Pal Singh said that pre-monsoon maintenance is an annual exercise and this time, they have taken care to cut power supply for some hours only for a day so that people don't have to face problems. He denied there was frequent load shedding during the month of May and said there were unscheduled power cuts only when there was some snag somewhere and power supply in the area had to be closed.
However, sources in the discom conceded to unscheduled power cuts and said power demand this summer has been constantly high and the company was not prepared for extra power demand that came their way and had to resort to power cuts.
"There is no power cut even if the demand is 1500 MW but duration of peak demand is limited to 2 to 3 hours, then you have demand in the band of 700 MW to 1000 MW through the day but this summer, may be because of excessive heat right from the month of April, the demand was in the range of 1200 MW from 7.00 am to 9.00 pm. The company was not prepared for the extra demand and had to resort to unscheduled power cuts", said an engineer of power discom.
