Rain god’s fury wreaks havoc

​Hyderabad: The unseasonal rains and gales have left several areas in Hyderabad without power for over 48 hours resulting in people facing severe hardships. In many areas the people had to even go without water. The reason for this inordinate delay in restoring power is lack of coordination between the Southern Power Distribution Corporation Ltd and the GHMC.

The areas like Padma Rao Nagar, Mirjal Guda, Malkajgiri, Chaderghat and Safilguda had to face disruption in power supply for more than 24 hours. The officials attributed the power disruption due to uprooting of 10 33kv, 105 11 kv poles and 212 LT poles electricity polls, besides damage to 14 distribution transformers and two power transformers.

The Southern Power Distribution Corporation Limited (SPDCL) officials are blaming it on the GHMC officials for failing to to remove the uprooted trees which had fallen on the electrical wires. The rains on Saturday night had caused severe damage to the SPDCL and also led to power failure for more than 48 hours.

The locals alleged that there was no response to their complaints. They also alleged that SPDCL officials did not receive their calls leaving them in lurch. A resident Kundan Bhoi said that unofficially three to four hour power cut was implemented twice to thrice every week.

“The TRS government claims that power cuts were things of past but they have been witnessing unscheduled power cuts for over four hours normally and with unseasonal rains and gale we had to go without power for two days.”

Another citizen Junaid Multani alleged that there was no response from the electricity officials in many areas. He said people had to suffer due to severe humid conditions.

The SPDCL director operations J Srinivasa Reddy said the power supply was now restored in most of the areas except for Padma Rao Nagar. Reddy said works were on to replace two transformers in the area, which would be completed by night.

The SPDCL Director said the damage this time was huge and it was never in the history of the Corporation. There were rains on May 6 but the damage was lesser but this time many trees had fallen and electrical poles were uprooted in many areas causing the delay.

“Our men worked relentlessly and without waiting for the GHMC staff to remove the trees logs, we removed them. Our 20 teams are working to restore the supply,” said Srinivasa Reddy.

Responding to the allegations of officials not responding to the calls, the Director said that the officials had not gone to their homes and they had to sleep at the offices. The batteries of their cell phone had discharged leaving the phone mute, said Reddy.

Meanwhile, the Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao reviewed the situation on Monday. The Minister said that the government would soon launch a 24-hour call centre to record the complaints. He expressed unhappiness over delay in removing the uprooted trees and electrical poles.

Stating that he was getting all the information through social media, KTR asked the electricity and GHMC officials to work in coordination and also asked them to take the help of Hyderabad district administration.

Transco officials informed the Minister that there were 9.9 lakh electricity poles in GHMC and 1,500 poles were damaged because of the rains. The officials informed that 99 per cent of the works were completed and 100 per cent power was restored.

The officials informed the Minister that out of the 40 lakh consumers only 1,000 consumers had to face power cuts for more than 24 hours.