A TSSPDCL official sent a notice to the HCA on 20 February asking it to pay a pending ₹1.63 crore surcharge within 15 days.
TSSPDCL sent a notice to the HCA on 20 February asking for unpaid surcharges to the tune ₹1.63 crore within 15 days.
The Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TSSPDCL) cut the electricity supply to the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) at Uppal in Hyderabad from 8 pm on Thursday, 4 April.
The TSSPDCL disconnected the power supply after the HCA did not pay the electricity bill to the power distribution company.
Significantly, the move came less than 24 hours before the Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Chennai Super Kings match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) that is to be held there on Friday.
An HCA official confirmed to South First: “The power was cut off at around 8 pm.” He added that the cricket association was “making alternative arrangements for power supply” for Friday’s match.
TSSPDCL Habsiguda Circle superintending engineer for operations sent a notice to the HCA on 20 February asking for unpaid surcharges to the tune ₹1.63 crore within 15 days.
The official warned that the power distribution company would otherwise disconnect the electricity supply without any notice.
Ahead of the #CSKvsSRH match at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday, April 5th, the power supply by @TsspdclCorport has been cut off due to non-payment of the electricity bill.
The @hycricket_HCA was asked to pay the pending electricity bill of Rs 1,63,94,521 on February… pic.twitter.com/xeW07pZJCE
— South First (@TheSouthfirst) April 4, 2024
In 2022, the TSSPDCL sent a notice to HCA to settle a substantial outstanding bill totalling around ₹3.05 crore, which pertained to a theft-of-energy case encompassing a due amount of ₹1.41 crore along with a surcharge of ₹1.63 crore.
That year, the stadium management filed a writ petition against the issued notice in the Telangana High Court.
In response to the petition, Justice A Abhishek Reddy gave an order on 4 March, 2022, asking the TSSPDCL to restore the power supply subject to the HCA paying 50 percent of the due amount — which was ₹1.41 crore.
Importantly, the court instructed the petitioner to address concerns regarding the surcharge with the relevant authorities.
The HCA paid the principal amount of ₹1.41 crore in three instalments by May 2022. However, the HCA also asked the TSSPDCL management to waive the ₹1.63 crore surcharge as a special case considering the absence of cricketing activities at the stadium due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the TSSPDCL declined the waiver, pointing to regulations that didn’t allow any such relief.
(Edited by Arkadev Ghoshal)
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