NEW DELHI - The national capital, which is facing its worst power outages in recent times, with mercury breaching the 40 degrees Celsius mark everyday, was on Sunday assured of relief in a couple of days by Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit.

A meeting of top officials was held by Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit on Sunday to find ways to resolve the power crisis in the city,

“Firstly central government has given us 150 MW extra power from its central pool. Hopefully we would receive it by today (Sunday) evening. Secondly we were not able to get 500 MW from Mandola power plant since it was out of order. But now we would get only 350 MW from there since its one or two transmission towers are still under repair. So with all this city would get a bit of relief,” said Sheila Dikshit.

Power demand has shot up to an all-time high of about 4275 MW, leaving a huge shortfall. Several areas have been facing frequent power cuts, with some lasting for 10 to 12 hours. The crisis has also led to severe water shortage in most parts of the city.

Dikshit, who had to face severe criticism from local residents, added that power distribution companies have been warned to improve the response time in attending to complaints.

“I and central government have given them time of four days saying that if we don’t see any improvement then some strict measures would be taken,” said Dikshit.

Delhi expects to get 250 MW more power from Uttarakhand by Monday. (ANI)