Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: In a bid to restore the electricity to Goans households and essential services, the Goa Electricity Department has flown in specialised technical staff from as far as Delhi and West Bengal while more would join from Pune and Kolhapur this evening.
Power Minister Nilesh Cabral said that the devastation has been such that it would take a lot of time to permanently resolve the issue.
”By today evening 95 to 98 per cent of the electricity would be restored while the rest would be done by tomorrow,” Cabral told Goemkarponn.
He said the government took decades to build the power infrastructure but the cyclone took just a day to destroy the same.
“The total estimated losses as of now is Rs 25 cr. More than 1000 low tension poles have either been broken or fallen, 150 high tension 11KV rail poles are bent, broken and fallen, kilometres n kilometres of conductors, aerial bunched cables damaged, 30 distribution transformer centres destroyed, 350 transformer centre developed fault,” he said.
Cabral said that for the fourth day today entire electricity department staff which is around 4000 in number is working round the clock with just few hours break.
“Besides our staff we have 200 workers of contractors working with us. On Sunday we sought help from contractors from Kolhapur, Solapur, Satara, Pune, Baramati and Belgaum, who sent 150 workers. On Monday we brought 20 specialised people from Delhi and 25 people West Bengal by air,” he said.
Again, he added, around 50 people from Kolhapur Pune will join today evening.
“These are specialised people who work on such situation. This is done with emphasis on restoration,” he said.
Cabral said that the present work is temporary solution permanent restoration will take days.
“The cyclone has again reminded us that underground cabling of 33kv and 11kv is a must as we have seen areas where there is underground cabling there has been no impact. Underground cabling is must for coastal State of Goa,” he stated.
Cabral says that underground cabling of low tension lines can be done later.
“Department has already prepared estimates for 11kv and 33kv. The estimated cost is Rs 3000+ cr. Due to huge cost we cannot take all at one time. We have to see how to take in phase wise,” he said.
