Varanasi fears missing Germany 2006 climax due to power cuts

Varanasi, Jul 5 (UNI) After missing live action of the FIFA World Cup upto the quarter--final stage due to non-availability of satellite TV content, the city fears losing televised sight of decisive moments of the soccer festival owing to late night power cuts.

Despite Doordarshan bringing the two semis and grand finale live, the late night power cut from 0100 hrs to 0300 hrs late last night engulfed the first big ticket last four encounter between Germany and Italy.

''If this continues, we will certainly fail to catch live the second semi-final and the summit clash, thanks to the power department,'' former international footballer Noor Alam said here today.

Mr Alam, further alleged had it been a World Cup Cricket match, the powermen would have thought twice before resorting to power cut.

The major part of the quadrennial soccer event remained off screen in Varanasi, following the non-availability of ESPN-STAR live coverage in the city.

The Siti Cable, providing cable TV services in the city had before the start of the event expressed its helplessness to show live the World Cup through ESPN-STAR citing higher subscription rates of the global sports channel.

The Siti Cable, the multi-service operator which provides cable feed through a network of 140 cable operators in the city had even telecast some of the matches live through free to air German and Chinese channels.

Yesterday, District Magistrate Rajiv Agrawal had during a meeting with entertainment tax department officials expressed displeasure over the department's failure to get the cable operators show the FIFA event live in Varanasi.

The DM, however, remained non-committal when asked about the late night power cuts casting their shadow on the climax of the world cup in Varanasi.

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