Power utilities report to state on restoration of services

Santanu Saraswati
The power utilities—CESC and West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL)—on Thursday submitted their report with the chief secretary, Ashok Mohan Chakraborty, at the Writers’ Buildings, regarding the restoration work carried by them after hurricane Aila struck the southern part of Bengal on Monday.

Though Chakraborty declined to comment on the report, Dilip Sen, executive director (commercial), CESC, observed that almost 98 per cent of the restoration work has been completed. The privately run power utility is expecting to restore supply of electricity in its entire network by Friday morning.

“We could start reconnecting the distribution network only on Tuesday evening as almost 1200 points got blocked or damaged either by uprooted trees or debris. Our men couldn’t reach many affected sites in time as deracinated trees blocked major arterial roads. Repair work was required at more than 6000 points, and more than 1700 CESC-men worked in 200 teams round the clock for more than 82 hours to restore supply since Monday night,” Sen told Hindustan Times.

The executive director admitted that in some areas, CESC was successful in restoring he power supply on temporary basis so that its consumers could at least don’t have to reel under acute drinking water crisis along with darkness. “It would take little time to go back to normal. Even New Orleans administration took more than a week to restore the entire power supply network when hurricane Katrina struck the US city on August 29, 2005, and the devastation caused by hurricane Aila is no less in amount. We have never seen such devastation in our life. In our report to Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, we have written just that,” Sen observed.

Though the condition in areas under CESC are little better, power situation in state board areas are still unimaginable, even on the fourth day after Aila struck—be it in South 24 Pargana, North 24 Pargana or Kolkata added areas adjoining Garia and beyond. People are without electricity, in some state board areas, since last Sunday, the day when this part of the state had gone through little cyclonic wave and downpours.

The West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) spokesperson, Ujjwal Mukherjee, has admitted that power distribution system network has collapsed in major areas of South Bengal including Kolkata, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Howrah, Hooghly, Birbhum, Burdwan, Nadia and Murshidabad districts after Aila struck on Monday last.

“Our employees have rushed to the spots where large number of electric poles were uprooted and entire distribution networks have to be re-built. There are uprooted trees still falling on live wires—that delayed the restoration work. We are taking help of the police, municipal authorities as well as the fire brigades to speed up the restoration. We are trying our best to restore the supply by Thursday morning,” Mukherjee told Hindustan Times.

The state board official admitted that apart from a few remote areas, normal electricity supply is expected by Friday. But huge agitations and road blockades are what affecting the restoration work. “This is causing abnormal delay. We need cooperation of people from all walks of life,” Mukherjee said.

But what Mukherjee declined to comment is the acute manpower crisis through which the state board is going after the state board was re-christened from WBSEB to WBSEDCL. There are distribution stations like Abdalpur, from where power is supplied to entire Madhyamgram, has only two workmen, and that too under a contractor. Huge retirement, early retirement of people from the state board has started taking toll on WBSEDCL’s service towards the consumers. Even Salt Lake, has started reeling under load shedding since Monday afternoon.

Though the chief minister’s office has given only 48 hours to complete the entire restoration of power supply, there is doubts, whether the state-run WBSEDCL, will be able to restore supply in districts even in the next seven days—the time allotted to the state board.
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