TNEB is struggling to find place for substation
Tirupur:With the land prices spiralling and private land owners unwilling to sell their land to a Government organisation, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board is struggling hard to find places to commission sub-stations across the export town of Tirupur.As it could not find suitable lands for the last one year to establish eight substations, the people of Tirupur have been sufferings for the last couple of months following unscheduled power cuts due to frequent load shedding. All the 10 substations in the Tirupur division, which earns Rs. 20 crore a month, have been proving to be inadequate to meet the power demand of this industrial town.Official sources point out that they have been searching for lands in Mannarai, Arulpuram, near Velan Hotels, College Road, Mangalam Road, Nochipalayam, Thiruvalluvar Nagar and Madeswaran Nagar. Mannarai and Arulpuram will have 110 KV substations that require two acre land each and the remaining will be 33 KV sub-stations, which require a land of 50 to 65 cents each."Land is very costly and scarce here," says a senior official.Meanwhile, the authorities have approached local MLA, C. Govindasamy and Revenue Divisional Officer L. Nirmal Raj recently seeking lands from the Government. They have directed the revenue authorities to find suitable poramboke and Government lands belonging to the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department across the town.
The industrial town experiences unscheduled power cuts twice or thrice a day. In the evening, the cuts are so frequent in the recent times due to load shedding. Knitwear export is going up and the town is witnessing all-round development with a lot of expansion activities, sources explain.Tirupur division already has 10 substations, which is the highest in the Coimbatore district. Unless, the new sub-stations are established it would be difficult for the administration to provide quality power in the future, officials point out.The inadequate transmission facility at Arasur, near Coimbatore and Engur in Erode district was the reason behind the load shedding in Tirupur, Karumathampatty and Avanashi areas.
