Bangalore braces for darkness before Diwali

The Karnataka government may be doing all it can to procure power from every source available, but the efforts appear to be jinxed. To tide over the power crisis the state government has decided to buy 1,500 megawatts (MW) of power at Rs12 per unit. But, chances look grim as there are other factors hindering the prospects.

Most parts of the city, however, had no load shedding for the past 24 hours. But the situation still looks grim.

“There is a huge problem for Bangalore although we are trying to manage with what we have. All the states including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala are overdrawing power from the central grid, which is hampering our share of power,” P Manivannan, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company managing director, told DNA.

A senior official from Power Company of Karnataka Limited (PCKL) said on condition of anonymity that there is no power available. “It is not that we are not trying to get it. There is congestion in the central exchange corridor which has hampered our purchases. The state has a shortfall of 20 million units as on October 2, which means we need to buck up before it is too late,” he said.

Power utility officials are also blaming farmers who changed the cropping patterns when power was given to them freely.