Bleak Tuesdays & Thursdays

Life, interrrupted
7:59 p.m.,
any Tuesday or Thursday

Ulhasnagar, where I live, has load-shedding every day of the week for seven and half hours. Tuesdays and Thursdays are special for us, as electric power goes at 1:30 p.m. in the afternoon, sharp, and returns at 9:00 p.m. in the evening, sharp. There is complete darkness all around, as even the street lights too are put out during the time of load-shedding*. The same pattern is repeated on Thursdays. This has been so since the third week of December last year. God knows, how long this will be like. Maybe for eternity. It is really a sad state of affairs. While Bombay city has uninterrrupted power supply, places like Thane and New Mumbai goes without power for four and half hours, but mostly during day time. It is places like Kalyan, Dombivali, Ulhasnagar and Ambernath, which goes without power for longer duration, mostly in the evenings.

For the record the following are the timings of load-shedding in the area where I live.

Every Monday: 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Every Tuesday: 1:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Every Wednesday: 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Every Thursday: 1:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Every Friday: 6:00 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. AND 5:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Every Saturday: 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Every Sunday: 9:45 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.

I have put the above table for my own record and to just check if the situation improves next month or it worsens. More likely it will be latter. With approaching hot months of April and May, I wonder what will happen. The demand for power will rise and so will be the hours of load-shedding. Situation is already bleak in rural areas, with load-shedding of 12 hours every day.

The root cause of this is that during the past seven years there is almost no change in the additional power generation sources, while the demand for the power is increasing every year. Obviously, the present Maharashtra Government is to be blamed for the sorry state-of-affairs.

Life, resumes
9:15 pm.
any Tuesday or Thursday

*load-shedding = the deliberate shutdown of electric power in a part or parts of a power-distribution system, generally to prevent the failure of the entire system when the demand strains the capacity of the system. (source: dictionary.reference.com)