Fly kites responsibly, appeal power utilities

The power utilities have asked people not to fly kites near electrical installations, saying the practice, which sees a spike around Independence Day, causes trippings and outages across the national capital.
In separate advisories, Delhi Transco Ltd and BSES appealed to the public not to fly kites around transmission lines and also desist from using metal-coated threads (manjha) as it may cause electrocution.
"Whenever there is a tripping in extra high-voltage transmission lines it runs the risk of long outage which may affect large areas. During the last few years a large number of trippings occurred in Delhi due to kite flying on August 15," a DTL statement said.

According to the data shared by the power transmission utility, in recent years nearly 50 such trippings have been observed on the occasion of each Independence Day. In 2015, such incidents were considerably less at 18.
BSES said disrupting power supply and causing damage to power equipment is punishable under the Electricity Act and the Delhi Police Act.
Tripping of one 33/66 kV line can disrupt power supply to over 10,000 residents in any area. Last year, BSES' area had reported 48 disruptions due to kite flying.