CHENNAI: After holding a monsoon review meeting at Tangedco’s head office, Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji on Tuesday said a special maintenance team has been formed in each district to deal with the northeast monsoon.
He told reporters the team would work with district Collectors and MLAs. Officials have also been instructed to ensure uninterrupted power supply during the monsoon season. Officials can be contacted at any time on the centralised consumer care cell Minnagam.
The minister also said there are 14,442 transformers, 1,50,932 poles, and 12,750 km of cables in stock. The power utility completed 13.65 lakh precautionary tasks ahead of the northeast monsoon. As part of this, 39,616 damaged electric poles and 31,197 fallen poles were replaced, and 25,080 new poles were erected. Besides, 1,759 km of electric cables were installed after removing the old ones, and the height of 2,692 pillar boxes has been increased in Chennai so far.
Speaking about Minnagam, Balaji explained, “As of now, 60 calls can be received at a time. Considering the monsoon period, the number will be increased to 75.” Responding to questions regarding underground cable work, which was affected by the Chennai Corporation’s stormwater drain work, the minister said Chief Minister MK Stalin instructed the corporation and Tangedco to work in coordination. “Underground cable work is going on in five zones in the city and will be completed soon. Then, work will begin in the remaining seven zones, “he explained.
Power connections to be linked to Aadhaar
Balaji said the State government took a policy decision and approved the linking of power connections to Aadhaar cards. Tangedco has been collecting details for this. The aim is to streamline subsidies given by the State government. TNIE published a report on this subject on February 21 this year