MARGAO
Against the backdrop of last month’s Borim mishap that claimed the lives of three electricity department workers, Power Minister Nilesh Cabral on Saturday said the department has decided to approach ACGL to design new trucks for the department with an expanded cabin to accommodate around six to eight workers.
Cabral further said that he has moved a note to the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to scrap all power department vehicles which have completed 15 years so that it can go in for new trucks with expanded cabins to accommodate workers.
The Power Minister told The Goan on the sidelines of the inauguration of LED repair workshop at the Pajifond sub-station that the process is underway to design new electricity department trucks used in the transportation of poles so that the workers travel in a safe cabin.
“We have approached ACGL to design our trucks with an expanded cabin to accommodate our workers who travel by trucks for duties such as erection and installation of poles,” he said, exuding confidence that the design of the trucks should be ready by December.
Saying that he has put up a note to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to scrap all departmental vehicles completing 15 years, the Power Minister said the existing policy states that a truck should complete 1.5 lakh mileage before it is scrapped. “We have vehicles which are very old, but they have not even crossed 1.2 lakh kilometres. To overcome this policy hurdle, I have put up a note to get the 15-year-old vehicles scraped,” he added.
The Power Minister further said that pending the approval of the new design of the trucks, the electricity department will request the transport department’s special exemption for its vehicles given the special job undertaken by the vehicles and staff.
“You know the ground reality that the power department staff cannot do the job without a ladder, which is carried on a vehicle. The RTO has to make an exemption for vehicles executing special jobs,” he added.
Three electricity department workers, who were travelling on a pole-laden truck, had lost their lives after the vehicle had turned turtle at the Borim road junction last month, throwing up questions on the safety of workers while on duty.
