News
Tempers heat up over burnt transformer
Irate residents and business owners in Udahamulla, Nugegoda, Wijerama and adjoining areas complain of ice-cream melting in their fridges, New Year work orders falling behind and sweltering conditions during power cuts caused by a transformer grid in Jayawardenapura Kotte which was burnt out six months ago.
Mechanic: Sunil Biligala and his co-workers have to put in extra hours to finish work because of constant power cuts. Pix by Mangala Weerasekera
The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has been juggling the power load between different stations to keep up supply. This was not always successful.
Sriya Menike, 57, owner of a retail shop in Wijerama, said the frequent power failure in the area had caused business losses.
“We are not informed when a power cut is to take place. Today there was a power failure from 8 a.m. till about 12 p.m. We use several fridges in our shop and when there is no power the food inside gets spoilt, especially the ice cream,” she said.
Dulani Jayananda, who recently opened a shop in Wijerama Lane said the outages had significantly affected profits.
“There are stocks of yogurt and ice cream that we brought to sell. Now they are all melted because the refrigerators cannot be operated. We can’t even return these
Ajith Kumara: No power means no work for this tailor who works on an electric sewing machine
products to the companies and can’t sell them to our customers because then they lose trust in us,” she said.
Mrs. Jayananda said it was difficult to work without electricity as most of the equipment, including the scales, were powered by electricity.
Residents and workers say most of the power failures take place during working hours. Workers are forced to stay idle during times of power failure.
One person badly affected by this is Sunil Biligala, 58, from Avissawella, a mechanic in Maharagama. He and his co-workers had to work extra hours to finish a day’s work now.
“All our machines are power-operated andwhen there is a power failure we have to stay for hours to finish our work. People like me are really affected by this because sometimes we are made to stay late to finish our work,” he said. Customers wanted their work done on time
U. G. Ajith, who runs a herbal shop in Jambugasmulla, Nugegoda
irrespective of the failures in power supply.
Residents are left ignorant of the reasons behind the power failures. Some believed the power cuts were caused by monkeys running on electricity lines.
“People say different things about these power failures. Some say that there is no water in Laxapana causing power cuts and others say that the government is doing this because people are watching the cricket match. Nobody really knows what is happening because the CEB hasn’t informed us,” said Ajith Kumara, 37, a father of two from
Stocks of yoghurt that have to be thrown away
Embuldeniya.
Mr. Kumara is a tailor. “My machine is electrically operated,” he said. When there is an interruption in the service I cannot do anything till the power comes back.” This was a real problem at the moment with orders flooding in for the New Year.
“These are mostly for new clothes that are to be taken to their villages. When we can’t finish a garment on time our customers get angry with us. They don’t understand that we failed to do the job in time because there is no power,” he added.
With no power to operate fans and air conditioners shop owners and workers have to work in uncomfortably warm conditions. U. G. Ajith, who runs a herbal shop in Jambugasmulla, Nugegoda said the heat was unbearable without a fan running and he found it very hard to stay inside his shop.
CEB Deputy General Manager Senajith Dasanayake said the burnt transformer was about to be replaced.
He said good service would return sooner than expected. The Rs. 75 million grid transformer had to be imported from abroad as none are made in Sri Lanka. The process normally takes a year.
“We will be able to provide stable power supply by April 5,” he said.