By Express News Service
DEHRADUN: With average temperatures soaring 5-8 degrees above normal, price of water and electricity is set to rise from Friday, April 1.
Consumers will have to pay 15-25% more than they were paying earlier.
“The rates are likely to increase from April 1. This is bound to put more pressure on the consumers but it is necessary given the financial stress on the goverment bodies responsible for the distribution of water and power in the hill state,” said a senior official from the start goverment on the condition of anonymity.
As temperatures continue rising, power crisis has also gripped the state with power cuts and shortages.
Dehradun recorded 35.6 degrees o. March 30 which is seven degrees above normal for the month on March, Pantnagar in Udham Singh Nagar recorded 35.5 degrees which is 4 degree above normal.
Hill station like Mussoorie also registered temperatures 24.9 degree which is four degrees above normal.
With summers almost arrived and temperatures soaring, gap in demand and supply of electricity has increased in Uttarakhand. At present, against the demand of 40 million units per day of electricity, supply is 31 million units per day.
The gap is being manger by power cuts ranging from one hour to six hours in small centers of the hill state.
Officials from the power corporation said that the rates of electricity per units have also registered increase up to Rs 20 per unit due to high demands.
The corporation is buying 9 million units of power per day spending Rs 15 Crore per day to meet the demand in the hill state.
Officials added that due to rise in coal and gas prices rates of electricity ler units have also gone up from Rs 10-12 to Rs 20 per unit.
Such spike in demand of power supply used to knock in the month of April but this year due to soaring temperatures the situation has arrived early, said officials.
Rising temperatures in the hill of Uttarakhand are impacting glaciers causing those melt and forming of pro-glacial lakes in basins of these galciers, a report by Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board in year 2020.
According to the report, before 1985 there were no significant changes in temperature of Uttarakhand hills and between the duration of 1970-90, it actually dipped.
After 1990, temperatures have been rising. Insterstingly, hills have registered more rise in temperatures than plains.
Pithoragarh district registered the highest spike (0.58°C), followed by Chamoli (0.54°C), Rudraprayag (0.53°C), Bageshwar (0.52°C) and Uttarkashi (0.51°C), Champawat (0.49°C), Almora (0.46°C), Nainital (0.44°C), Tehri (0.43°C) and Pauri (0.41°C) which are all hill districts. The plains district of Haridwar saw an increase of 0.34°C, the lowest, followed by Dehradun (0.37°C) and Udham Singh Nagar (0.42°C).
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in year 2019, the average global surface temperature was up by 0.98°C since year 1880.
