Shillong, Jan. 28: Meghalaya is reeling under an acute power crisis which threatens to plunge the state into long periods of darkness.
Over the past couple of weeks, Shillong and the major towns of the state have been experiencing power failure at intervals of 20 to 30 minutes throughout the day.
MeSEB officials attributed the power crisis to the breakdown of the 60-MW stage IV power station at Umtru and the non-availability of adequate power from Central sector grids.
?It will take at least four months for the stage IV plant to be re-commissioned. Till then we will have to continue load-shedding to save power,? chief engineer (distribution) of MeSEB, S.K. Dey, said.
He added that the board was ?heavily dependent? on Central sector power stations to supply the total requirement of 140 MW during the day and about 200 MW during peak hours.
Of the total requirement, about 60 MW is needed for industries alone.
The one-time power surplus state has been buying power from the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation and the National Hydel Power Corporation for almost two years at Rs 2.95 per unit.
However, power supply from the Northeast grid is not regular anymore. Owing to non-generation of power at the Kopili power station during the day and the shutting down of Kongdong station, the supply of power from the Central grid has been reduced to 75 MW.
The stage IV power plant, which was damaged when an underground tunnel blew up on November 31, has not been repaired. Neither have the erring officials (whom the government had promised to punish for ?negligence of duty? leading to the blast), been taken to task.