Residents fume as Chennai's southern suburbs face overnight power cut amid searing summer

CHENNAI: As sleepless nights continue in the city and its suburbs due to unannounced power cuts during night hours, residents took to streets and protested against the power cuts during the peak summer, on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, several residents in and around Vallur in north Chennai blocked the road leading to Kamarajar Port alleging that power supply was interrupted in the locality since the previous night. They demanded the Tangedco to take immediate measures to prevent such power cuts.

On the other hand, residents in southern suburbs such as Pallavaram, Chromepet, Tambaram, Sembakkam and surrounding areas went through a similar ordeal.

"Power supply was stopped in the area at around 1 pm on Monday and resumed at 7.30 am on Tuesday. Due to the extreme heat, we could not stay inside the house and sleep at night," a resident fumed.

He added that whenever the residents tried to call the EB office, a proper response was given. Nowadays, power outages occur for 5 hours. The EB should inform the residents about the time of power cut and resumption," he said.

Similarly, Pattabiram residents near Avadi are suffering for the last two days without continuous power supply as the Tangedco is yet to fix two transformers that burst in the area.

Meanwhile, electricity minister Thangam Thennarasu claimed that uninterrupted power is being supplied to consumers due to several measures taken during the last three years.

"To receive complaints from the public, 65 employees have been deployed in three shifts in Minnagam (customer care centre) and the centre is functioning for 24 hours a day," he said.