Chennai, June 9:
Repeated power disruptions in a few locations were not solely due to technical failures, Minister for Electricity Resources R Nirmalkumar said on Monday, alleging that CCTV footage had revealed instances of unidentified persons removing fuses and tampering with electrical infrastructure in Avadi. He said officials had been instructed to lodge police complaints and that evidence would be handed over to law enforcement authorities.
Addressing reporters, the Minister said electricity board officials had noticed a recurring pattern of outages in certain areas. Upon examining CCTV footage, they found that some individuals had allegedly interfered with power infrastructure, leading to repeated disruptions.
Action would be initiated against those responsible, he said, adding that after the FIR is filed, the video footage would be made public.
At the same time, Nirmalkumar acknowledged that ageing infrastructure was a major challenge. More than 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the state’s transformers were over 20 years old and were therefore susceptible to faults. Several substations were also struggling to handle increasing electricity loads, resulting in low-voltage problems and supply interruptions in some areas, he said.