Tarun Karthick
Sri Vijaya Puram, 16 October 2024
Power cuts have been a recurring nightmare for the residents of Sri Vijaya Puram (formerly Port Blair) and its surrounding areas for the past several years. Despite occasional improvements, the power supply on the South Andaman main island remains unreliable, leaving residents and businesses to cope with frequent outages.
While some residents have adapted to the disruptions by installing backup systems like inverters, these solutions remain out of reach for many. Upper-middle-class households, with decent earnings, have adjusted to the frequent cuts, using inverters to power essential devices during outages.
For the island’s business community, particularly those in the manufacturing and hospitality sectors, the situation is much grimmer. Power cuts have severely impacted productivity and increased operating costs. Businesses in tourism-driven industries like hotels, restaurants, and cafes, which rely heavily on uninterrupted power to serve visitors, are forced to rely on costly diesel generators during outages. These additional expenses have become a significant burden, particularly for small to medium-sized enterprises struggling to stay afloat.
The issue extends beyond just businesses. Freelancers, remote workers, individual entrepreneurs, and tour operators—all integral to the island’s economy—find their daily work disrupted by the constant interruptions in power. The losses, both financial and in terms of productivity, are mounting, impacting nearly every facet of life in South Andaman.
One of the most concerning effects of the power cuts is the non-availability of street lighting. After dark, at any given point of time, some or the other part of Sri Vijaya Puram and more remote locations are often left in complete darkness due to power cuts, raising safety concerns. Repeated power cuts during the evening hours leave streets vulnerable, potentially increasing the risk of crime.
Lower-middle-class residents are particularly hard hit, as many cannot afford backup power solutions. For these families, daily life is a constant struggle, and there appears to be no immediate solution in sight.
Despite the widespread disruption caused by these power cuts, the Andaman and Nicobar Administration has been unable to find a lasting solution. The issue is far from new; residents have endured unreliable power supply for years, with no significant improvements.
In the recent past, the administration has organised high-profile seminars and conferences in cities like Bangkok and New Delhi, where the islands are presented as prime investment destinations, particularly in the tourism sector. However, this raises an important question: how can investor confidence be built when the capital city itself struggles with such fundamental issues? Power reliability is crucial for any business, and the ongoing outages are bound to make potential investors wary of putting their money into a region where even basic infrastructure is unstable. Without addressing the power crisis, the administration’s efforts to attract global investors may fall short.
The power crisis on the island is not only affecting daily life but also casting a shadow over its economic future.
It’s puzzling why the highly paid engineers and bureaucrats haven’t taken appropriate action to resolve the power crisis in Sri Vijaya Puram. Generating the required amount of power seems straightforward—install additional diesel generators, and the problem is solved. It appears neither the engineers nor the bureaucrats are genuinely interested in fixing the issue, as the solution is clear but no effective steps are being taken. Residents and businesses continue to suffer, and without power reliability, the island’s development is being severely hindered.