With more than 120 electric posts damaged and overhead power lines snapped in 300 locations, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) had emerged one of the biggest casualties of Sunday evening’s thundershowers. In the Thiruvananthapuram Electrical Division alone, the losses were to the tune of a stunning Rs 55 lakh, the KSEB said on Tuesday after a preliminary assessment of the damage.
Barring replacement of broken posts in the bylanes and supply problems faced by a few individual consumers, the mammoth task of restoring power supply to the city has been completed, the KSEB said.
The power utility lauded its staff for undertaking a massive troubleshooting exercise on a war-footing. Although KSEB offices are thinly staffed on Sundays, the employees had started repair works without waiting for official instructions. For restoring power supply fully, the KSEB has now deployed all employees and contract workers in the Thiruvananthapuram Electrical Division plus contract employees from the other divisions across the city.
Most areas of the city had been hit by power outages on Sunday after the flash rains. Telephone connections also had gone dead in several places.
‘’We were able to restore supply in most areas by 9.30 pm on Sunday. It was decided that the assessment of the damage would be undertaken only after restoring the supply,’’ the KSEB said in a statement. ‘’We are also happy that not even a single accident was reported during the repairs,’’ said KSEB Chairman M Sivasankar. ‘’It is laudable that the employees followed all the safety norms to the hilt even in a crisis situation,’’ he said.