Power cuts for 8 hours daily riles citizens

SHILLONG, April 10: The days of load-shedding in Meghalaya are far from over.
Regulated power cuts for eight hours a day – from 12 midnight to 5 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. – began two weeks ago.
A city resident said one of her neighbours, a dress designer who uses an array of electrical implements, has been unable to meet delivery deadlines due to the prolonged load-shedding.
A teacher said the power cuts have affected her late afternoon tuition classes.
“We want the government to tell us when we are likely to get respite from the load-shedding,” she said.
Many pointed out that mobile phone connectivity has been erratic during load-shedding hours.
Officials said the state government had to resort to load-shedding due to a shortage of power. People in the state capital rued that the power cut phase coincided with the Lent period.
Meghalaya currently has a power availability of 88 million units against a demand of 200 million units. The state is not receiving 35 million units of power from the Kopili Stage I due to the bursting of a valve there and the power supply from two projects in the state has also been cut off.
Other power generation units in the state are also not functioning, adding to the power woes.
Load-shedding has been a severe problem in Meghalaya for a very long time. Memorandums of understanding were signed for developing hydropower projects in the state years ago, but most of these have been on paper while a few were scrapped recently.
The 126 MW run-of-the-river Myntdu Leshka project was inaugurated quite some time ago. The second unit that was expected to generate 280 MW to ease the state’s power problem has not progressed beyond the planning stage.
The 40 MW New Umtru project commissioned years ago and the 22.5 MW Ganol project inaugurated earlier this year have failed to address the power problems in the state.