Sopore: Residents and shopkeepers in Sopore town of north Kashmir on Monday expressed anguish against Power Development Department (PDD) demanding a high capacity and separate transformer.
“More than 300 shops of Iqbal market and the Neharpora village of Sopore are without electricity as PDD has failed to restore the faulty transformer in the last week,” said Tariq Ahmad Shah, a resident of Salmanabad.
“We demand up-gradation of transformer from 250 kv to 400 kv or provide separate transformer to market. The 250 kv transformer caters electricity to 100 households and over 300 shopkeepers at Iqbal market. Due to much overloading, the transformer developed some technical snag and this is not for the first time, our transformer develops technical snags frequently,” group of locals said.
The residents said they have been appealing the concerned authorities to replace the existing one with higher capacity or provide separate transformers for locality and market but “they don’t pay any heed to our concerns”.
“We face immense hardships during winters and have visited higher officials to intervene but to no avail,” Fayaz Ahmad Peer, one of the shopkeeper said.
When contacted PDD, a senior official said the transformer will be repaired and installed within two days.
