Visakhapatnam: Several villages in Ananthagiri grapple with power outage

Visakhapatnam: A number of households in the Agency areas either do not have access to power or suffer from interruption/inadequate supply.

Ananthagiri mandal still grapples with darkness as over a dozen villages lack sufficient power supply.

Though some villages have been facilitated with electricity through solar power, lack of its maintenance makes several hamlets remain in dark.

In 2014, solar panels have been installed in some of the hamlets such as Maddirevu, Tallaripadu, Thumukota, Karakavalasa, Buriga, Kakarapadu, Tagalamadi, Gummanti, Gaddibanda, Rayipadu, Pandirimamidi, Rompalli, NR Puram, Pinnikota and Painampadu.

However, the solar power should be consumed between 4 am and 6 am and again from 6 pm to 9 pm.

Since many households in these villages consume power during the day, many of them are left without power in the latter part of day. "Maintenance of solar plant is a far cry in most villages. For months, several households do not have power supply because of the absence of maintenance, including battery replacement. Whenever we lodge a complaint to officials concerned about the solar plant's maintenance, it would get rectified only to recur in a short while," says K Govinda Rao, district secretariat member of CPM.

To overcome this challenge, villagers demand a permanent solution. "With limited power supply, most of our nights are spent in the dark. To resolve this problem, we requested the officials concerned to connect the grid for us to avail uninterrupted power supply," says G Jagannadham, a tribal union leader.

Meanwhile, there are some villages in Ananthagiri mandal that do not have even few hours of solar power supply. They include, Avalaguda, Kothavalasa, Dayithi and Pedavalasa. "Efforts are on to provide power supply to 11 mandals through grid. With the support of the World Bank, the grid connection will be facilitated with an estimated cost of Rs 32 crore. Tenders for the proposal have already been called for. Works for grid will commence once the lockdown is relaxed," explains T V Surya Prakash, Superintendent of Engineer (Operations), Visakhapatnam Circle.

Inhabitants in 11 mandals will heave a sigh of relief once the power grid connection comes into effect.