Unannounced Power Cuts Add to Prayagraj’s Summer Woes: Residents Say Decades of Outages Continue Despite Assurances

By BK Singh

As temperatures rise with the onset of April, electricity demand has surged sharply in Prayagraj, exposing once again the fragile state of power supply in several parts of the city.

In the Naini area alone, more than 40,000 consumers depend on five major substations — TSL, Someshwar Mahadev, Parehath, Jail Road and Mama Bhanja — for electricity across both urban and rural feeders.

Yet, instead of a reliable supply during peak summer, residents are facing frequent and often unannounced power cuts, leaving households struggling to cope with the heat.

With rising temperatures pushing up consumption, the frequency of outages has increased significantly.

Officials attribute the disruption largely to “local faults,” which are said to take hours to repair, particularly in rural pockets located far from substations.

Areas such as Dadri, Chhivki, Chhota Chaka, Teduaon and Baramar — connected to the Mama Bhanja substation — have been among the worst affected, where restoration work is delayed due to distance and infrastructure constraints.

Urban localities in Naini too have faced repeated interruptions over the past week. On Monday afternoon, a fault in a 132 KVA transformer affected the supply to neighbourhoods connected to the TSL substation.

Residents of Naini Bazaar say outages are occurring multiple times, even at night, making daily life increasingly difficult. When consumers try to seek information, they are often told that the disruption is due to a “local fault,” with no clear timeline for restoration.

Officials maintain that demand has risen significantly due to the heat, and efforts are being made to resolve technical issues promptly.

TSL substation SDM Madan Kumar stated that teams are attending to faults on priority to ensure supply is restored as quickly as possible.

However, for many residents, the issue runs much deeper than seasonal demand. They say unannounced power cuts have been a persistent problem in Prayagraj for decades, affecting generations despite repeated assurances from successive governments.

Mallika Raghuvanshi, a resident of Stanley Road who will turn 74 this August, says she has endured erratic electricity supply for nearly four decades.

“Power cuts three to four times a day have been a part of life for as long as I can remember,” she says. “Bills are paid on time, yet consumers are left helpless without even basic information about when electricity will be restored.”

According to her and many others, attempts to contact power stations often prove futile.

Phone calls frequently go unanswered, and in rare cases when someone does respond, explanations vary — from local faults and maintenance work to snapped wires or fallen trees.

Consumers say the lack of clarity only adds to their frustration, especially when different callers receive different reasons for the same outage.

Residents argue that the problem is not limited to peak summer months but continues throughout the year.

Despite an increase in the number of substations and infrastructure expansion in some areas, the quality of supply, they claim, has seen little meaningful improvement.

For households already coping with intense heat, repeated outages mean sleepless nights, disruption of essential appliances and difficulty carrying out routine work.

Many consumers feel that uninterrupted electricity is not merely a convenience but a basic necessity — particularly when bills are paid regularly and on time.

As temperatures continue to climb, citizens hope that authorities will address the long-standing gaps in power distribution, ensuring that promises of reliable electricity translate into tangible change on the ground rather than remaining recurring assurances.