Big relief from power cuts

• 24-hr power supply to urban areas, 18 hrs to villages
• Industries to get 14% more

Hyderabad: Thanks to the onset of the monsoon, power consumers can heave a sigh of relief as the government has directed officials of power utilities to restore 24-hour supply immediately to the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad and all district headquarters and other towns. Rural areas will have partial relief. Power supply for industries will be up by 14 per cent. Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy who reviewed the power situation on Thursday with the officials concerned wanted maximum power supply to all the sectors as the demand has come down in the agriculture sector following the onset of the monsoon and with considerable drop in day temperatures. As a result, district headquarters towns and corporations in addition to the major cities such as Hyderabad, Tirupati, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Warangal will have round-the-clock power supply. The officials also briefed the Chief Minister on the latest power situation in the State. Consequent to the directions given by him, a decision was taken to increase power supply from 12 to 18 hours in rural areas. For mandal headquarters, towns and municipalities, the load shedding will be only for two hours in two spells. Supply will be increased from 66% to 80% for all industries from June 15. The government had initiated several short- term and mid-term measures to overcome the power crisis and this included purchase of 1,250 MW from outside that is currently flowing into the system. Under mid-term measures 550 MW will be made available from June 16 this year to June 15, 2016 from corporate power.