Irate residents in Agartala on Sunday night vandalised two power stations in the city to protest the acute power crisis.
Power department officials said that locals broke tables and chairs, and damaged electricity equipment at the power houses at Ramnagar and IGM area of the city when power supply was disrupted.
The ongoing power crisis virtually put Tripura, which is a power surplus state, on a powder keg.
On Sunday night, large parts of Agartala witnessed massive power cuts owing to shortage in electricity supply due to collapse of a transformer at Rukhiya Gas based power production unit.
After several hours of power cut, angry resident of the city took to streets and staged protests against the power failure.
A section of angry residents ransacked two power stations in the city.
They alleged that consumers have not received any response while making phone call on the helpline number, which was installed by Tripura State Electricity Company Limited (TSECL).
“We made repeated calls on the helpline number to inquire about the power cut, but nobody picked up the phone,” said a resident.
They said that during the last 10–12 years, they never experienced such power outage.
A TSECL official said that one transformer of Rukhiya Gas based power production unit collapse on Sunday.
“And the underground cable of newly installed 33 KV transmission line was burnt leading to disruption in power supply,” he said.