A strike by around 40,000 electricity employees has severely disrupted power supply across Haryana, leaving an estimated eight to 10 lakh homes without electricity and affecting water supply, schools, companies and industrial units in 23 districts, according to a report by Live Hindustan.
The disruption has been particularly severe in Gurugram, Faridabad, Palwal and Rewari. Around half of Gurugram is reported to be without normal power supply, along with about 50 villages in and around the city. In Faridabad, electricity has remained disrupted across large parts of the district since Wednesday night, with several residential areas, markets and industrial zones affected.
The strike has been called in opposition to the proposed privatisation of the electricity system. The resulting breakdown has affected essential services that depend on continuous power, including domestic water pumps, inverters, internet connections and school operations. More than 10 schools in Faridabad reportedly declared a holiday on Friday after sending messages to parents because electricity had remained unavailable for more than 24 hours.
In Gurugram, residents of Rajendra Park blocked Railway Road on Thursday evening after a prolonged outage. Hundreds of people gathered on the road and raised slogans against officials and employees of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam. Police reached the location and cleared the blockade after about an hour following an argument with residents.
Faridabad saw protests and road blockades at Lakhani Chowk, Saran Chowk, the Ballabgarh-Tigaon Road, Parvatiya Colony, the Number Two electricity office and Piyali Chowk. Residents also gathered near substations in Sector 2, Ajronda, NIT-5, Palla and Kheri Gujaran. In Jharsaintli village, protesters blocked the National Highway, while residents in NIT-3 blocked Masjid Chowk. Police were deployed at several locations amid tensions and concerns about possible confrontations at substations.
The report said the Faridabad electricity control room received about 2,500 complaints that could not be resolved. Around 50 feeders were reported to be out of service in the district, while industrial production in some units was said to have fallen by about 50 per cent. The outages also interrupted household water supply because pumping systems could not operate.
The scale of the disruption is reflected in the reported status of the distribution network. Gurugram had 28 11-kilovolt feeders and one 33-kilovolt substation shut, affecting about 50,000 homes. Faridabad had 43 11-kilovolt feeders and two 33-kilovolt substations out of service. Palwal reported 30 11-kilovolt substations and three 33-kilovolt substations affected, while Rewari had 22 11-kilovolt feeders shut. In Narnaul, 40 33-kilovolt substations and 21 11-kilovolt feeders were reported to be non-functional.
A single feeder typically supplies electricity to between 1,500 and 2,000 homes, according to the report. The disruption therefore extends beyond household inconvenience to the operation of urban water systems, schools, offices, factories, communications and local commerce.
The managing director of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam is sending hourly updates on closed feeders and substations to Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and Power Minister Anil Vij. The authorities’ next steps and the restoration of affected feeders will determine when normal electricity and water services return across the impacted districts.
