ROURKELA: In a major relief to residents of 50 villages of Lathikata block in Sundargarh district, South Eastern Railway (SER) authorities on Monday allowed power distribution utility WESCO to repair an underground 11 kv wire at Jorabandh.
Sources said the residents of the villages have been deprived of electricity for the last 15 days after underground cables laid across the single railway track on Rourkela-Barsuan route were damaged at Jorabandh on May 19. WESCO used standby cables to restore power supply to the affected villages.
However, the cables were damaged once again during work to lay a second track on the rail route. Power supply to the village has been cut off since then. To make matters worse, SER did not allow WESCO to undertake repair of the underground cables leading to resentment among the villagers.
WESCO Superintendent Engineer AN Meher said amid threats of ‘rail roko’ protest by the irate villagers, Rourkela ADM Monisha Bannerjee on Monday held a meeting with WESCO officials. He said following the meeting, SER’s Chakradharpur-based Senior Divisional Engineer (electrical) agreed to allow WESCO to undertake restoration work from Tuesday in the presence of SER’s technical team. WESCO’s Lathikata SDO RK Mohanty said two sets of cables would be laid five feet below the tracks using push method.
He added that the cables would be fitted inside pipes measuring 110 mm in width and 70 metre in length. Mohanty said the work would be completed in four days.
Meanwhile, Sundargarh Zilla Parishad president Emma Ekka came down on SER for delaying permission to WESCO to undertake the restoration work for which the villagers had to suffer a lot.