News: IOCL Nod Clears Backup Power Link to Sector 56-26-05-2026
A stalled transmission line meant to give parts of Gurugram a backup power source is set to be finished by June 15, after Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) on Monday allowed the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (HVPNL) to lay it over its underground oil pipeline. The approval came two days after a major outage.
The Rs 22 crore project is a 6.5-km line linking the 220kV substations in Sector 65 and Sector 56. Work started in February 2025 and was originally due by May. HVPNL officials said six kilometres had been laid, but the last 500 metres were held up for nearly two months because the line has to cross IOCL’s pipeline between the Mathura and Panipat refineries.
The Sector 56 substation is connected onward to Sector 52, and both currently draw power from the 220kV substation in Sector 72, where a current transformer blast caused Friday night’s blackout. A senior HVPNL official said the outage could have been avoided had the approval come earlier, since the two would have had an alternate supply from Sector 65, which is linked to the 400kV substation in Kadarpur.
Eight substations were shut during the five-hour outage: three 220kV ones in sectors 52, 56 and 57, and five of 66kV. The Rapid Metro, fed from Sector 56, stayed non-operational for 43 minutes.
A link from Sector 56 to the 220kV substation in Palli, Faridabad, could not be used on Friday because a Rs 15 lakh circuit breaker there was defunct. Anil Malik, HVPNL executive engineer (Gurugram division), said that line has now been restored. Once the new line is working, he said, the Sector 56 and 52 substations and the 66kV ones connected to them will have three sources, including Sector 72.
