By Stephen Dias

I HAVE a request for our new Chief Electrical Engineers Raghuvir Dalvi, he has just been appointed. May I request him to undertake a survey of the various electrical installations in Panjim.
I live at ‘Bay View’, Dona Paula. Even before the Corona lockdown there were fluctuations of the 3-phase 440 Volts supply and now it is beyond the scope of present set up at Electricity Sub-station at Taleigao. A former student of mine from Goa Polytechnic, Altinho, is the assistant engineer there and no doubt he has done tremendous work and even put stray wires/cables in proper shape – those which were hanging and in danger of faling. He keeps sending his fleet of linesmen whenever requested but it is of no use. The voltage in the area keeps on fluctuating, especially between 8 pm to midnight, after that it stabilizes.
I have informed him that one phase shows low voltage and goes as low as 108 volts at night, whereas other phases are manageable. I have advised AE Mr Kutikar to isolate the areas and pin-point the fault. Apparently, they cannot do this because night duties are not permitted for workers and also it is difficult to locate the fault. But please take a look at the photos accompanying this report and tell me if the problem can be tackled?
Lines workers come when called and they visited and inspected at site a transformer installed (behind where Dr Antonio Mascarenhas stays). Anybody can see the condition of that HV transformer. The door is broken and the fuse boxes are open.
Also several illegal constructions are on the rise on my side and behind my house and eight-storey building is coming up endlessly. Other residents have also been complaining and nobody listens. I wonder when once the electricity supply is approved for such a construction what will be the fate of longtime residents in the area?
Even our Governor of Goa Satyapal Malik has taken precautions to cut down the load at Raj Bhavan and hopefully others highrise buildings, especially our NIO institute and colony may follow the rule of external lighting. Moreover, nowadays people have rushed to Goa from neighboring states due to the perception that is Goa is a safe coronavirus free Green Zone. I see some people staying behind my house and many unknown two and four wheelers passing by my house. The additional people residing in the area could be the cause of loading the electrical supply especially at night and the culprit/s could be detected by the linesmen. I have seen having Tong Testers instrument to check the line current helps track defaulters.
I feel these new residents may be using irons, water heaters and other heavy appliances which are the behind the cause of fluctuations and low voltage. If any attempts to track down the cause and faults don’t work and cannot be rectified the government will be in loss as every time it is not possible to invest and change transformer.
I am requesting our new CEE to look into this matter as early as possible. There are by the way several local residents, including myself, who have damaged appliances like fridges, air-conditioners, TV’s , washing machines, coolers, microwave ovens and geysers, etc. This is to say courtesy all the electrical chaos in the upmarket area of Dona Paul along with others I am now forced to take precaution of installing individual stabilizers for every equipment in my house. I hope something can be done for better sense to prevail before the skies open and the rains are here!