NEW DELHI, December 25: Living in the Chief Minister's neighbourhood is literally a privilege as one can easily forget what power-cuts - that ruined Christmas for many today - feel like. Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) is required to install an additional power line to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the area where the head of the Delhi government resides.Dikshit, who is yet to be allotted the official residence, has been given an additional power line to her Nizamuddin residence. This `extra' power line, DVB officials say, ensures uninterrupted power supply to at least 30 houses in three lanes next to her house. Needless to mention, her immediate neighbours are a pleased lot, as power cuts in their area is now a thing of the past.When Dikshit's predecessor Sahib Singh Verma shifted from his official residence at Sham Nath Marg to Shalimar Bagh, an additional power source was plugged in there. Besides chief ministers almost all VVIPs benefit from this, including DVB chairman Virender Singh. The reason being cited for extra back-up power lines in almost all the cases is security.Earlier, it was the residents of NDMC's Lutyens Delhi spanning 42.74 sq km who enjoyed a more or less uninterrupted power supply. According to D N Gupta, chief engineer (electricity) NDMC: ``Residents of the NDMC area get power from 13 sources. In case one collapses, the system automatically switches to the other''.The luxury is slowly travelling to a select few outside the VVIP area, courtesy the DVB. In these days of severe load-shedding all over Delhi, Chairman Virender Singh, who lives at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, insists that the additional source of power is not a luxury. ``My job is to monitor electricity supply in Delhi. How will I do that if there is no electricity in my own house?'' he says.``There is uninterrupted power supply in this area only because there is no power theft and load is balanced,'' counters another DVB official attached to the chairman's office. ``There are no shops or industries near his house. The jhuggis have been given a single-point connection. Even though they use power for heating water and cooking food, there is ample power. It comes from two feeders,'' the official adds.Y.P. Singh, Member Technical of DVB, says that this arrangement was not limited to Lutyens Zone and that an alternative supply arrangement exists all over Delhi's distribution network. ``We try to switch alternative lines all over the Capital when one line fails. But there are times when the alternative lines collapse because of reasons like overload, tension, cracks,'' he adds.Though the back-up system in DVB's turf fails regularly, it rarely does in the NDMC areas, claims NDMC's power chief. ``There are several reasons for this. Our maintenance is good. Our transmission and distribution (T&D) losses are a mere 13 per cent as against the 45 per cent of the DVB. Our transmission lines have been laid underground and therefore pilferage is minimal,'' he says.
