‘Power supply restored in Yaas-hit areas’

BHUBANESWAR: Power has been restored to almost 100% of the consumers affected by cyclone Yaas in a record five days, government authorities said on Monday.
Of the around 30 lakh families whose power supply was affected, 29.60 lakh had got back supply by Sunday evening. For the rest mainly in Soro area of Balasore district, Dhamra and Basudevpur of Bhadrak, Anandpur in Keonjhar district and a few pockets of Maurbhanj, the work has almost been completed on Monday, energy secretary Nikunja Dhal told TOI.
Behind the quick restoration lies the government strategy to mobilise man and machine before the cyclone struck on May 26. After the IMD predicted that the cyclone may hit northern parts of coastal Odisha, the government mobilised 10,000 workers and moved electric poles, conductors and wires to strategic locations in northern districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Mayurbhanj. While the powermen got into the restoration job the very next day, NDRF and ODRAF had already cleared fallen branches of trees.
“Workers were mobilized from Nayagarh, Ganjam, Dhenkanal and many western Odisha districts. Keeping in mind the pandemic, rapid antigen tests of the workers were done to ensure infection doesn’t spread among workers from an infected person from among them,” Dhal said.
To get and retain workers for power restoration, the government had announced special labour rates for those deployed by the power distribution companies and OPTCL for restoration of cyclone damages. Unskilled workers were paid Rs 462 up from Rs 308 while semi-skilled got Rs 522 (up from Rs 348) and skilled workers got Rs 597 (up from Rs 398).
“A portion of restoration work was challenging in areas which were heavily waterlogged. Repair of a 33 KV Dhamra feeder was indeed a tough job as the area was marooned,” the energy secretary said.
The energy department has pegged the total loss to power infrastructure at around Rs 150 crore, mostly in Balasore and Bhadrak districts. The comparatively low loss to the infrastructure is attributed to pre-emptive steps in anticipation a possible summer cyclone.
“Because in the last two years, fallen branches of trees had mainly damaged powerlines, this time many trees were pruned in April and May. This preventive maintenance helped a lot in minimising damage. This also prevented many trees from getting uprooted,” Dhal said.
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