GURGAON: More than 10,000 residents of new sectors along Dwarka Expressway spent a sleepless Saturday night after a prolonged power outage, triggered by the snapping of a 66kV transmission conductor over NH-48, left several residential societies without electricity for nearly eight hours amid sweltering summer conditions.Power supply remained disrupted from around 8 pm on Friday till nearly 4 am on Saturday in several high-rise societies, forcing families to struggle through the humid night without fans or air-conditioners. Residents said the worst affected were infants, young children and senior citizens, many of whom found the heat unbearable.The outage affected Habitat 99A, Habitat Prime, Laxmi Pareena, Pareena Coban, Assotech Blith, Pareena Elite and Cosmos Express 99, where residents complained not only of the prolonged disruption but also of the absence of timely information from the electricity department on restoration timelines.“We spent the entire night in extreme heat. There was no clarity from the department despite repeated calls. Had residents been informed about the expected restoration time, many families with children could have shifted elsewhere for the night. Instead, everyone kept waiting in uncertainty,” said Praveen Thakur, a resident of Habitat 99A.Another resident, Santosh Kumar of Laxmi Pareena, said the prolonged blackout caused immense hardship, particularly for elderly residents and children, who were unable to sleep because of the intense heat.According to the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), the disruption was caused after the 66kV conductor on the Harsaru–Sector 35 circuit snapped while crossing NH-48 on Friday evening, affecting power supply from the 66kV Sector-35 substation.The fault disrupted electricity supply to 10 feeders, including New Sector-35, New Shani Dev, Superon, Sona BLW, Anand NVH, HSIIDC-1, MM Aqua, MTech Auto, Bambino Agro and HSIIDC-2.DHBVN officials said supply on two industrial feeders — New Sector-35 and New Shani Dev — was restored by shifting their load to the Sector-34 substation. However, the remaining six independent and two industrial feeders could not be shifted because of technical constraints.The outage also affected feeders under the Kherki Daula subdivision, including SPR Road (Urban), Begumpur Khatola (Urban), Suzuki (Independent) and Lenskart (Independent).Compounding the problem was a three-day shutdown on the Badshahpur circuit, where Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (HVPNL) was already carrying out scheduled maintenance work, leaving no alternate source available for supply restoration.Repair work proved particularly challenging because the damaged conductor was located over the busy NH-48 corridor, where heavy traffic slowed restoration efforts.A DHBVN spokesperson said, “The snapping of the 66kV conductor on the Harsaru–Sector 35 circuit temporarily affected supply from the Sector-35 substation. Our teams remained on site throughout the night and coordinated with HVPNL and other agencies to restore power at the earliest.”“While supply on some feeders was restored by load shifting, technical limitations and the ongoing maintenance shutdown on the Badshahpur circuit prevented alternate arrangements for the remaining feeders. Restoration work was carried out on a war footing despite the operational challenges posed by heavy traffic on NH-48.”
