Bhopal blacked out! 70 kmph winds plug city into darkness

Bhopal: The power went out just after midnight, the kind of sudden darkness that makes you check your phone, then your windows, then wonder if the whole city has simply vanished. Katara Hills fell silent. Ayodhya Nagar went dark. Across Bhopal, more than half the city was plunged into blackness as strong winds and a thunderstorm battered the state capital past midnight on Saturday.

Nearly 300 of the city’s 502 operational 11 kV feeders — more than 60% of the electrical grid — triggered faults in rapid succession. Thousands of consumers were left without electricity for hours, some for most of the day. By early morning, crews restored power in many localities, but residents in several areas continued to face outages ranging from six to 12 hours. In Katara Hills colonies, supply came back only around 8 am on Sunday. Parts of Ayodhya Nagar and adjoining neighbourhoods remained powerless well into the afternoon.

The culprit was a ferocious windstorm with speeds touching 70 kmph. Trees and branches crashed onto power lines across the city, snapping wires and toppling transformers. The distribution network, already stretched thin by the summer heat, buckled under the strain.

For residents, the outage was more than an inconvenience. It was a moment of vulnerability. Air conditioners stopped. Refrigerators warmed. Families sat in the dark, listening to the wind howl outside, wondering when the lights would come back on.

As the scale of disruption became apparent, the electricity company mobilised its entire field machinery. Senior officials, including the general manager, deputy general managers and technical teams, were deployed across the city during the night to supervise restoration work. Through coordinated efforts, supply to 205 affected feeders — nearly 75% of those impacted — was restored by 2.30 am, with repair work continuing on the remaining feeders through the early morning hours.

“We set up multiple teams, which were working throughout the night. By 4.30 am, we were able to restore supplies to all the feeders. However, in some areas, tree removal, etc., was going on. But most of the complaints, barring a few individual complaints, were resolved by Sunday morning,” general manager (city circle) Pradeep Singh Chauhan told TOI.

The company claimed year-round maintenance aimed at ensuring uninterrupted power supply, but the interruptions came anyway, with repeated tripping and short-duration disruptions continuing till Sunday morning.

A few localities, including Char Imli, 74 Bungalow, Shahpura and Arera Colony, escaped the disruption. Residents in several other areas, however, complained of repeated tripping and prolonged outages despite the discom’s claims of year-round maintenance and preparedness ahead of the monsoon season.

As the sun rose on Sunday, the message was clear: When the wind blows hard, the city goes dark. And when the lights come back on, it’s a small victory worth celebrating.