Chennai: Hundreds of residents in Avadi and nearby areas on Friday laid siege to the substation in Kamaraj Nagar after power supply was cut off in the wee hours of Friday. Some staged a road roko on the CTH Road, briefly disrupting traffic before police rushed to the spot and pacified the protestors. A video of the incident has gone viral.Consumers said the power supply was cut around 3.30 am and did not resume even after three hours. They said they went to the substation to enquire about the disruption, but it soon turned into an argument. The households have been grappling with frequent power cuts for the last few weeks.TNPDCL field officers said a bus coupler at the Kamaraj Nagar substation caught fire, interrupting the power supply via cables to the Tiruverkadu and Avadi 33kV substations.“The bus coupler was removed, and the equipment had to be cleared before it was refixed. It took time, and there was no intentional delay on TNPDCL’s part. Power supply was fully restored before 7.40 am. The bus coupler could have developed issues due to continuous run and overheating,” said an official.
