Tamil Nadu’s Minnagam electricity helpline, used by consumers to report power cuts, low voltage and billing problems, has repeatedly become unreachable during outages because its call centre has only about 10 minutes of power backup, according to officials cited in a report by Times of India – Chennai.
The helpline, which operates on 94987 94987, is powered by the Mylapore 230kV substation. An official told the newspaper that whenever the substation develops a fault and power is not restored within 10 minutes, the call centre goes offline. Callers then receive no response while trying to register complaints about electricity supply and related services.
Minnagam receives around 3,000 calls a day and has become the main channel for consumers after the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Limited replaced the mobile numbers of field officers. The new numbers were not widely publicised, according to the report, leaving many consumers unaware of how to contact local officials. Fuse-off call numbers were also reported to be unreachable in several cases.
The helpline’s reliability problems come as Chennai and nearby areas continue to report unscheduled power cuts. TNPDCL’s own declaration recorded outages lasting more than an hour in 56 regions across Chennai and neighbouring districts during the 24 hours up to Sunday morning. The outages were reported despite Electricity and Law Minister R Nirmalkumar saying that the power supply position in Tamil Nadu had stabilised from Saturday.
Residents of Pulianthope and Palavakkam reported power cuts lasting about three hours on Sunday. The interruptions were attributed to failures and faults in underground cables. The reports add pressure on the distribution utility to maintain both electricity supply and the communication systems consumers depend on when supply fails.
Social activist T Sadagopan criticised TNPDCL’s preparedness and said coordination among government agencies was inadequate. He also said industries were beginning to feel the impact of the power cuts. The report did not specify a timeline for strengthening Minnagam’s backup system or restoring consistent access to field officers and fuse-off complaint channels.
