Pandals make 'light' of power crisis

HYDERABAD: Around 3.6 to 3.8 lakh units of electricity have been consumed by Ganesh pandals in the city this year. With organisers of these pandals across Hyderabad trying to outdo each other in terms of arrangements, many pandal organisers said that their expenditure on lighting has increased at least by 10%from last year. APCPDCL officials said that this time the amount collected from the many Ganesh pandals in the city for temporary supply is nearly Rs 1 lakh more than the previous year.
A G Satish Kumar, chief general manager of APCPDCL metro zone said, "This year we have collected around Rs 25 lakh from the organisers of the pandals till now while last year it was a little over Rs 24 lakh. The figure this time may even cross Rs 25 lakh as it needs to be updated further." He added that the amount collected from the north circle which includes Secunderabad, Bowenpally, Sanath Nagar, Chilkalguda and Tarnaka, formed the bigger share with nearly Rs 16 lakh being collected from there alone.
Kumar said that based on the amount collected, it could be estimated that anything between 3.6 to 3.8 lakh units of power were utilised by Ganesh pandals alone over the last ten days. An average house uses around six to eight units of power daily.
However, the above figure may not accurately reflect the total power consumed by pandals as some organisers said that the practice of installing more lights than they paid for is rampant among many puja committees. "We need to pay a fixed amount to APCPDCL for the lighting arrangement we require. Anything over 500 watts costs Rs 1,500 and another Rs 750 is to be paid for extra 500 watts. Many people pay only Rs 2,250 and end up installing a couple of extra lights without paying the amount," said S Narayan (name changed), a Ganesh pandal organiser at Secunderabad.
Many pandals this year have upped their lighting arrangements by throwing in a couple of extra halogen lamps. M Sai Baba, chairman of the committee that sets up the pandal at Chappal Bazaar, Kacheguda said, "Last time we spent around Rs 25,000 on the lighting, but this time the amount has crossed Rs 30,000. We have added more lights making it a total of 10 halogen lamps along with hundreds of smaller serial bulbs and decoration lights.