DIBRUGARH, July 31 - With power generation and purchase normalising, the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) has been able to somehow maintain power supply in the city here, with just one or two hour power cuts in the past fortnight. However, given the hot summer this year, which will continue till mid-October, the power supply in the city may collapse, given that upgradation�of local power distribution works is not progressing well enough.
Sources in the APDCL here said that though the city has an office of a general manager of the company here, power distribution upgradation works is not happening as earlier projected. For example, there is an urgent need for a new 20 mVA (10 x 2) sub station for the Chowkidinghee-Chiring Chapori area, but the GM and his subordinates are not taking steps for the early execution of this sub station. A suitable plot of land for this project was identified long ago, but APDCL is dragging its feet on purchasing the land, and thereby delaying the works.�This plot is located at Nagabari, and is said to be well suited to serve the greater Chowkidinghee and Chiring Chapori areas, the two major residential localities of the city.
In the areas under the greater Chowkidinghee and Chiring Chapori localities, residential properties like individual residences and apartment blocks are witnessing a mushroom growth, which is putting greater loads on the existing power delivery network. These two localities alone are said to set to demand about 9 megawatt of power in the next two years, against the present load demand of�about 5 megawatts. Given this situation, the power delivery improvement activity is abysmal.�These two localities are currently dependent on a 11 KV main line that has conductors which are almost 40 years old.�There is an urgent need to replace the conductors with higher capacity as well as augment the main line to 33 KV.�But ask APDCL engineers about this, they will try their best to digress from the discussion.
