State power department today prepared a roadmap to undertake immediate restoration of power amid alerts of Cyclone Yaas hitting the state next week. Super cyclone Amphan that had hit last year pummelled the state which remained without power connectivity for over 40 hours.
“We have received an alert from the weather office. The chief secretary held a meeting yesterday following which a meeting was held at our department. We have taken some decisions today. Learning from last time’s experience we have come up with a comprehensive plan this time at the micro-level so as to ensure immediate repair and restoration work,” said power minister Aroop Biswas.
Six districts that have been identified to be at high risk of devastation by the cyclone are North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly and East and West Midnapore. Every block of these districts will have three High Tension and three Low Tension Gangs for undertaking immediate restoration work. Same will be followed for Bidhannagar.
Each Gang will have six to seven electricity workers. The Gangs will report to the BDOs by 1 pm on 25 May. In Kolkata, two Gangs will be deployed for every KMC ward along with materials. Biswas today held a meeting with CESC officials regarding preparedness. Along with this, two Gangs will be kept ready at each of the police stations of the areas under CESC namely Budge Budge, Maheshtala, Howrah and North 24 Parganas.
A control room has been set up in the power department that will function 24×7 from 25 May. The contact numbers are 8900793503 and 8900793504. The minister along with additional chief secretary, MD of state power distribution corporation and chief engineer distribution would be present at the control room on 25 and 26 May for closely monitoring the situation.
Tomorrow onwards leaves of all power department staff have been cancelled. The power department has already sent 18,305 poles, 255 km conductor (wires) and 450 transformers to all the districts. Meanwhile, Centre today issued guidelines to ramp up health infrastructure in Bengal and Odisha’s coastal areas.
The government warned that public health challenge amid Covid may be compounded due to health risks in terms of water, vector and air borne diseases in camps /temporary shelter settings.