BENGALURU: Bengalureans ' fear has come true: Bescom has announced three hours of daily load shedding with immediate effect.

There will be load shedding in every locality of Bengaluru city for three hours - in three one-hour instalments between 6am and 9pm. The power outages will be between 6am and 11am, 11am and 4pm, and 4pm and 9pm. Other urban areas under Bescom, which supplies power to eight districts of Karnataka, will witness four-hour outages every day.

The scheduled power cuts will give residents respite from unscheduled power outages. But they are sure to be disappointed over the three daily outages.

"Due to a severe generation outage in the state, (and) because of technical problems and annual maintenance works at generating stations, Bescom is facing an acute power shortage. Moreover, support through wind power has reduced.

Bescom is facing a 900-MW shortage," said a release from the supplier.

As many as 827 feeder channels under different power stations in Bengaluru have been grouped under five batches for the load shedding schedule. To know details of the power cut schedule, Bescom has asked citizens to visit its website, www.bescom.org, or log on to its Facebook page. Speaking to TOI, Jayanthi N, Bescom general manager (customer relations), said the situation is unlikely to improve this week, and therefore, Bescom is constrained to announce the load shedding schedule.

"The proposed load shedding schedule will continue for one week. As soon as the situation improves, consumers will be informed. Hopefully, we sort out the problem soon and the duration of load shedding might come down in coming weeks," she said.

For Nirantara Jyothi feeders, there will be four hours of load shedding. Five hours of three-phase supply has been arranged for agricultural feeders. For rural mixed feeders, five hours of three-phase supply and nine hours of single- phase supply has been arranged.However, there will be round-the-clock electricity for industries, water supply and other essential services, Bescom said.