This is one puja that's high on power note. Ballygunge Pratisthan Durgabari at Ballygunge Place is determined to grab pandal hoppers' attention with lavish illumination. They have applied for a whopping 360 kw to dazzle the locality. That's one and a half times the maximum load last year. Incidentally, they themselves had applied for only 40 kw in 2006!
Maddox Square, that topped the electricity load last year with an application of 200 mw, has been edged to the second spot despite a quantum jump to 340 kw. Suruchi Sangha is the third highest applicant with a load demand of 200 kw.
Altogether, 3,006 puja organisers from Kolkata, Howrah and Hooghly have applied for load aggregating 3 million units this year. CESC expects another 26 organisers to apply for loads, taking the demand to 3.3 million units.
While more organisers have applied for the temporary power connection during the festivity, CESC is expecting revenue to dip from Rs 1.6 crore last year to Rs 1.35 crore this year following a tariff slash.
CESC officials said tappings had declined over the last few years. Though demand has shot up in pandals, CESC has assured consumers that it would not lead to loadshedding. "We have made arrangements to import 160 mw in addition to the supplies by West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Ltd," CESC executive director (commercial mains) Dilip Kumar Sen said.
Source: The Times of India,17-10-07
