Frequent power cuts bring Andaman residents to streets

CHENNAI: The

Raj Niwas

, the seat of power of lieutenant governor of the Andaman and Nicobar administration, turned a battle ground on Wednesday with a large number of

Port Blair

residents protesting against long power cuts in the Island.

Police resorted to lathicharge after stone pelting by protesters. A station house officer, identified as

Aberdeen

, was injured in the melee. He was rushed to hospital for treatment.

Protests will be intensified on Friday, as all schools, colleges and market will be shut down, in protest against power shortage. The public ire has now turned to the lieutenants governor for his inept a handling of the power situation, and placards sprang up asking him to go back.

Meanwhile, the electricity department issued a press state acknowledging the shortage and assuring people that the situation would ease in the next few days.

“A 20mw

Suryachakra power

plant at

Bambooflat

started giving 3.5mw load from Wednesday afternoon to eliminate power cuts during night hours, from 11.15pm to 6am,” it said.

One more 1.6mw unit belonging to a private consortium is expected to give load of about 1.2mw by Thursday evening and it will reduce load shedding further. One more DG set of this power house is likely to be commissioned by Sunday evening. A second 5mw DG set of Suryachakra Power plant is also expected to give power supply to electricity department grid by Sunday, it said.

Starting from Wednesday the power situation will steadily improve in the next few days, as another private producer has acquired 2mw DG sets which would be commissioned and start generation in 7 to 8 days, said the superintending engineer of electricity department of the Andaman and Nicobar administration on Wednesday.