Power supply will be restored in 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh from 6 a.m. on Friday as about 50,000 employees of public power utilities in Seemandhra have called off their stir.

The five-day-old stir, launched to protest against bifurcation of the State, has crippled life in 13 districts of the region.

After having a detailed interaction with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy at the State Secretariat, Seemandhra leaders announced that they have called off the strike for the time-being.

“The Chief Minister assured us that he will take care of our demands. The Centre seems to be going slow on the bifurcation process. We have decided to temporarily call off the stir,’’ Saibaba, leader of the seemandhra power employees, told reporters after emerging from the talks.

The representatives said that they will resume work from 6 a.m on Friday.

Power supply hit

More than half of the State is without power for the past few days as the employees of Seemandhra region abstained from work against the Centre’s move to carve out a separate state of Telangana.

About 5,000 MW of power generation was affected due to the strike. Power generation was hit in 1,760-MW Narla Tata Rao Thermal Power Station, 1,100-MW Rayalaseema Thermal Power Station, 770-MW Srisialam right bank power house, and hydel projects at Sileru and Machkund. Generation was also affected in some of the indendent power producers.

While the overall demand is estimated to be about 11,500 mw, the supply was close to 7,000 MW as of yesterday. The Government was also procuring some more power through spot purchases to bridge the huge demand supply gap.

Even essential services such as hospitals, railway traction and bank ATMs were affected in all the 13 districts of Seemandhra due to the ongoing stir.

Kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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