Bengaluru : It is blackout time in Bengaluru. A city that prides itself as India’s Silicon Valley has no power to run its machines of the mind. The IT city is facing an unprecedented power crisis with the State’s power board announcing a massive four hour power cut and a bunch of unscheduled cuts.
In some areas, power is not available for as long as eight hours, throwing life and business out of gear. Bescom (the power distribution authority) has said in no uncertain terms that things will not improve in the coming days or weeks as there is a massive shortage of power.
Almost all walks of life are affected — from water supply to laundry services, work from home option, restaurants and elevators in apartments that get jammed, raising safety concerns. Even hospitals have been affected. A few IT companies have shifted their employees to Hyderabad and Chennai.
Now the government has asked the authorities to switch on streetlights at 7pm, instead of 6pm.
Energy minister D K Shivakumar has blamed deficient rainfall for the crisis. The State faces vary low levels at major hydel reservoirs and to make matters worse, there is a lack of wind energy too.
“We depended on generation of hydel and wind power, but both failed”, the minister said.
But the government too is to blame, not just the rain or wind gods. Power projects have been gathering dust for over a decade in the secretariat. Sources say that the government failed to foresee the inevitable coming of the crisis and allocate funds for new projects or purchase power in the open market.
