Ghaziabad: Ganga water plants’ power cut for 24 hours over ₹3.5 crore pending bills

The power discom on Wednesday disconnected the electricity supply for 24 hours to three water treatment plants that supply drinking water to Noida and Ghaziabad over unpaid bills, officials said. It restored supply on Thursday after the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Jal Nigam paid a portion of the dues and promised to pay the remainder soon, officials added. While Noida and Ghaziabad did not face water supply issues due to the disconnection, this is the second time in three months that the plants’ power supply has been disconnected over unpaid bills.

The UP Jal Nigam said it could not pay bills on time because since 2022-23 it has had trouble getting funds from its beneficiary agencies that collect charges from Noida and Ghaziabad consumers. The fund paucity has forced Jal Nigam to take water purification material on credit and if the material supply is affected, the plants may shut down again, officials said.

“The Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited (PVVNL? told us that ₹3.5 crore bill is pending. The Jal Nigam takes funds from beneficiary agencies, and in turn they levy taxes/service charges on residents. We have been trying hard to get funds from agencies in Noida and Ghaziabad for one-and-a-half years, and this is the second such disconnection we have faced. The funds are meant for paying electricity bills as well as for purification and treatment of water for further supply. Due to paucity of funds, we are taking material meant for water purification on credit. If the material supply gets affected, the plants may face shutdown again,” said Bhramanand, executive engineer of the UP Jal Nigam.

The plants in question are in Pratap Vihar, Ghaziabad, and supply 480mld (million litres per day) drinking water from the Upper Ganga Canal to Noida and Ghaziabad. The electricity supply was disconnected at 1pm on Wednesday and restored on Thursday.

“The PVVNL connected the three disconnected electricity connections around 5pm on Thursday. The plants have resumed operations. The Noida authority has made a payment of ₹2 crore, and we apprised PVVNL that the rest of the payment will soon be made. So, they restored the electricity connections of all the three plants,” said Bhramanand.

Noida authority officials said that they received approval for the payment on Thursday.

“We couldn’t make payment earlier because we failed to get requisite approvals. We got approvals today and paid ₹2 crore dues. The water supply got restored for Noida. There is no water supply issue in the city,” said RP Singh, general manager of the water works department of Noida authority.

Rudresh Shukla, media coordinator of the Ghaziabad development authority, said it will soon release a payment to the Jal Nigam. “We were informed about the pending bill 10-12 days ago. We are making arrangements for payment, and it is expected to be made in the next three or four days,” Shukla added.

In January, PVVNL disconnected the three plants’ power forover ₹6 crore dues. PVVNL officials said that the authority regularly sought bill payment from agencies in Ghaziabad and Noida, but the pendency continued, and they had to take up the harsh step of disconnecting power due to the approaching end of the current financial year.

“The three plants have three connections, and there is a pending bill of ₹2.53 crore, ₹56 lakh and ₹45.46 lakh pending against the three connections,” said Sachin Kumar, executive engineer from PVVNL.