SRINAGAR: This winter, power supply is likely going to be better in parts of Srinagar, north Kashmir and south Kashmir, as the power department is improving its power supplying capacity to households. The light of this project may be seen in the next two weeks as the Lassipora 160 MVA grid station is complete and about to be used for the power supply.

Otherwise, Kashmir faces the perennial problem of long power cuts during winter, of nearly 10 hours in unmetered and eight hours in metered areas. In rural areas, particularly in north Kashmir’s Bandipora area, the power curtailment used to be huge. But this too will most likely be better this year.

The key man responsible for this is Chief Engineer, Kashmir Power Transmission Corporation, Hashmat Qazi, who has been boosting up the power transmission capacity from 1600 to 2800 MVAs in just a span of two years. It reduced power cuts last year and it will reduce them further this year, easing up the harsh winter life for common people.

“We are charging one grid on Friday at Delina and Mir Bazar would be the follow-up project. In January, Tengpora and Khanyar would be added to the system. Once this is done, we will have a better system at hand to supply power to people,” Qazi told Kashmir Reader.

As soon as winter arrives in Kashmir, the consumption of power goes up, beyond the system’s capacity to supply. Hence the power cuts. Now as the winter is knocking at the doors, the power department is on toes to add capacities to the system. It is for the first time in recent years that the system would be upgraded. The distribution wing of the power department has always blamed either the lack of grid capacity or high demand for the power cuts.

But this time around, the Chief Engineer for the Distribution Wing of Power Department, Aijaz Dar, says that power supply would be better than last year.

“This winter the power situation will most likely be better,” he said, “due to the added capacity of power grids to the system.”

Qazi is more confident. He told Kashmir Reader that once the Lasipora grid gets charged, about 200 MVA power will be supplied to Srinagar, while at the same time many areas of south Kashmir would get more supply.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz