The cyclone battered and flood hit Ganjam district will celebrate a ‘dark diwali’ as power supply has not been restored to many areas.
Over 3.31 lakh out of 5.39 lakh households of the district are without power since October 11, a day before cyclone Phailin hit the coastal district near Gopalpur.
Even as the October 31 deadline set for restoration of power infrastructure by the state government ended on Thursday, the Southern Electricity Sooply Company (Southco) has resumed power supply to only 40 per cent of the consumers.
“It will take another 15 days to bring the situation to normal and we are trying to restore power supply to all the block headquarters, NACs and urban centres within the next couple of days,” claimed a senior Southco officer who did not like to be named.
However, sources who had seen the extent of damage done to the electricity infrastructure in the district said that restoring normalcy in power supply would not be possible before next month.
Restoration of power supply was not possible as a large number of damaged power transformers and distribution transformers have not be replaced. There are frequent trippings of power as the transmission and distribution system have not been stabilised, official sources said.
The latest progress report of the district said that only 66 out of 114 damaged power transformers, and 1,939 out of 8,094 distribution power transformers have been restored as on Thursday.
While the cyclone damaged over 3,130 kms of 11 KV lines and 6,462 kms of low transmission (LT) lines, the utility has restored 612 kms of 11 KV line and 1011 km of low transmission lines.
Of the 93 extra high tension (EHT) towers twisted by the cyclone, only 9 towers have been erected.
The power situation to Ganjam district will only be stabilised when the 220/132 KV grid substation at Narendrapur will be made functional, the sources said.
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