[Mypepraipse]

There will an addi tional power cut of one hour in Chennai city and its suburbs for the next 11 days from June 27. That would mean the city would face power outages for two hours every day, till July 7, according to government announcement on Saturday.

The proposed load shedding was due to the line connectivity work to the 1,500MW TNEB-NTPC joint thermal power plant at Vallur in north Chennai from June 27 to July 7.
Load shedding would be carried out for one hour during the day on rotational basis from June 27, 29 and 30, July 1 to 5 and 7. But on June 28 and July 6 load shedding will be done during nighttime, the release said adding a place would not have the power cut twice during night.

The release said one of the three 500 MW unit of the power projects is scheduled to be completed by December this year.
The board had announced one hour power cut every five hours in the city and suburbs, but following chief minister Jayalalithaa’s discussions with the electricity board officials on Friday, it was decided to reduce it to two hours.

K. Narashiman, superintendent engineer of civil transmission, said load shedding was inevitable due to the proposed shutdown of Nellore-Alamatti and Alamatti-Sriperumbudur transmission line for connecting the Vallur plant with the inter state grid. He also said that it was necessary to connect the plant, as the start-up power would be provided through the Alamatti substation. “We have planned to ensure that it causes minimum inconvenience to the public. Once the plant is connected and it starts generating power it will only benefit the people,” he said.

- DC