KL News Network
SRINAGAR
Contractors working for the power development department in implementing the R-APDRP have evolved their own dichotomy in creating the new infrastructure. If a consumer is influential, they can have their mini-transformer based in between two steel tabular poles and if it is a common man, they will install the same transformer on one concrete pole. This is what is now being discussed in Peerbagh locality.
“We were shocked to see that the PDD creating two different types of infrastructures in the same belt,” an elderly resident from Umarabad told Kashmir Life. “In Cooperative Colony, they are setting up a system in which they have two tubular poles between which they create the base for the small transformer.”
The mini-transformer is meant for three households. It is aimed at improving voltage and preventing a bad consumer destroying the transforming system that pains the entire locality. R-APRDP is a centrally sponsored schemes aimed at preventing energy pilferage by improving and upgrading power distribution set up at ground zero.
In contrast, the same department and the same contractor is creating a different infrastructure in Umarabad belt. “Here we have a single concrete pole on which they create an aluminum saddle on which they intend to place the transformer,” the resident, who led a delegation, said. “Even here, they have been very selective in offering steel poles to a few.”
Interestingly, the new infrastructure is being created under the high-tension lines and the breakdown of one system will impact the other set-up. “We have approached them and they have not offered us a plausible explanation,” the delegation said.
Residents said the contractor initially told them that Cooperative Colony is flood prone but when he was told that Umarabad was also under water in September 2014 floods, he just fled.
They said that they will not permit the contractor to implement the project unless they have fair explanation of why they have resorted to different processes in the same belt. “Is it being done to save money and if yes where will that money go?” they asked.
However, refuting the allegations, department’s project wing Chief Engineer, Khurshid Badoo said that, ‘our primary concern is the safety of the people and if there is variation in the infrastructural setups it is due to space constraints.”
“There are no other issues,” Badoo said and assured that, he will pay a visit to the area in a few days to check if there are any irregularities.
