Shimla:
Even as electricity was restored in most parts of Shimla after heavy snowfall snapped transmission lines across the city, residents of Kagnadhar remained without power for an entire day and night, exposing serious lapses in preparedness and infrastructure maintenance by the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL).
The prolonged blackout hit Kagnadhar hard, while HPSEBL claimed near-complete restoration elsewhere in the city.
Residents said the crisis was not caused merely by snowfall but by a recurring and unresolved problem — the Kagnadhar power station getting burnt or breaking down every time there is rain or snow. The same failure was repeated again on Friday, leaving the area in darkness.
Though a limited number of linemen braved freezing winds and harsh conditions to restore electricity in other localities, no effective solution was provided in Kagnadhar.
Burnt equipment, unrepaired cables and a damaged power station kept supply disrupted throughout the day and following night.
The human cost of the blackout was severe. Students preparing for crucial examinations were left helpless without electricity.
Families struggled through biting cold, while newborn babies shivered as homes remained without heating or basic electrical support.
Residents said the outage compounded their misery at a time when snowfall had already brought normal life to a standstill.
Kagnadhar councillor Ram Ratan Verma said that electricity could not be restored in areas near the Pollution Control Board due to fallen trees, tilted electricity poles and damage to the main supply circuit of the power station.
He stated that areas from the Mahila Police Station to Shri Lekh Ram’s house and the Happy Nest area were expected to receive power by evening, while other pockets would continue to face outages.
However, residents questioned why Kagnadhar alone repeatedly suffers such prolonged failures. They alleged that HPSEBL has failed to permanently fix a known technical flaw, despite repeated breakdowns of the same power station during adverse weather.
The episode has once again exposed HPSEBL’s acute shortage of technical field staff and trained linemen capable of climbing poles and restoring snapped cables during emergencies.
Locals said every spell of rain or snow in Shimla, particularly in Kagnadhar and New Shimla areas, lays bare the utility’s poor maintenance, weak response system and lack of long-term planning.
With extreme weather becoming more frequent, residents warned that unless HPSEBL urgently upgrades its infrastructure and strengthens its on-ground workforce, such power crises will continue to push vulnerable citizens — including students, elderly residents and infants — into avoidable hardship in the state capital.
