Electricity crisis plagues Meluri Town

Morung Express News
Kohima | May 3  

For almost a month now, residents of Meluri Town have spent their night in total darkness after the town’s transformer broke down last month. However, for the sprouting town of 5191 people, with 1154 households, the electricity crisis is nothing new.  

“Time and again, the electricity goes off. It has become very frequent. We are so used to it that we have even stopped demanding,” said C Nyuthe, a resident of Meluri town who mentioned that this crisis has been going on for more than three years now. Further, the resident added that the Power Department has not replaced the transformer despite repeated demands, but instead keeps repairing the old one. The consumption is beyond the capacity of the transformer.  

“It’s nothing new for the residents. Every year, for at least two months (once in summer and once in winter) Meluri town spends it in darkness,” stated a government administrator, mentioning that the transformer allotted to the town has very less capacity and that due to the rapid expansion of the urban area, the problem will continue until they install a new transformer with higher capacity.  

An official source has informed that the transformer capacity is only 500 kVA for the expanding town and will require another 250 kVA. Further, in order to repair the transformer, it has to be transported to Dimapur which takes days to fix.  

The Power Department has connected the power line of the public institutions such as the hospitals, banks and administrative offices to the Meluri village power line, which has a different transformer. However for the residents, most of them go to the village to charge their phones and other electrical appliances. “We have to go to the village to charge our phones, invertors. All our demands are falling on deaf ears,” lamented another resident.