Noida: Nearly 4,000 residents of The Hemisphere in Greater Noida’s Sector 27 were left without power in the extreme heat and humidity for about 24 hours after a high-voltage internal cable fault disrupted electricity from 2pm on Tuesday until Wednesday afternoon. The diesel generator backup operated until 4am on Wednesday and residents struggled without water supply and non-functional lifts after that.RC Rathi, a retired air force officer who lives on the 13th floor, had to climb down to the entrance of his tower to get his groceries on Wednesday morning.“The vegetable vendor and the milkman did not want to come up to the flat. I had to come down to collect the stuff,” he said. “I have older neighbours who had to do the same. Moreover, in this sticky heat, water was scarce.”When the DG backup ran out after 14 hours at 4am, elderly residents, children and others living on upper floors struggled to move in and out of the towers. The outage also affected the society’s commercial complex, where traders said perishable food and dairy products were damaged because of the power disruption.The high-rise is a premium, 102-acre residential township, located opposite Sector Delta 1 Metro station. There are 12 towers and each of them have 14 floors. It has 1,000 residential units, including ultra-luxury villas, apartments and studio units.“There was no drinking water supply from Wednesday morning. It’s hot outside, and people, some of whom have health conditions, were left to suffer,” a resident of one of the villas, Subhash Bhati, said. He claimed the builder has set no standards for the towers’ maintenance and power backup or even installed a fire exit. “The retail shops in the commercial complex are also complaining about losses,” he said.A retail food store owner, Nitin Kumar, said the deep freezer was not working for at least six hours. “I had to dispose of a lot of perishable items, including dairy products like milk, curd and ice cream. I have suffered a loss of nearly Rs 1 lakh,” he said.A bakery shop owner, Sachin Goyal, had to face the same plight. “Most of my stuff got spoiled and had to be thrown away,”he said.
Traders in the commercial complex of the society complained of financial losses in the absence of electricity and power back
However, Sahil Gulati, who was in charge of maintenance at the highrise society, denied the allegation that the builder had not set any benchmarks. He told TOI: “Supply was provided through the DG until 4am on Wednesday. The lifts were working and water was available. After that the DG developed a snag due to long usage. Teams were on the ground to get the DG working and carry out cable repairs. Power supply was restored around 2pm,” he said.
