VASCO
A visibly unhappy Vasco MLA Krishna Salkar on Thursday said the contractor’s lack of coordination with the PWD and electricity department had led to a 22-hour power outage in several parts of the port town.
Salkar, who visited the site to take stock of situation, however hailed the efforts of the electricity department to restore power after the underground cables were damaged by a gas pipeline laying contractor.
“I had even called the contractor at around 12 am and told him that the pits opened by them along the road need to be filled immediately or else someone could fall and there could be a casually. Despite my call, this unfortunate incident has occurred,” Salkar told reporters.
“I have warned the contractor to coordinate with all departments and not excavate at his whims and fancies. We have electricity and PWD pipelines and the contractor must carry out works only after coordinating with these departments,” said Salkar.
“The electricity department worked tirelessly to restore power supply and I appreciate their efforts.”
Electricity department Assistant Engineer Sanjeev Mhalshekar said the electricity department had carried out work to restore power supply despite heavy rains.
“We faced a lot of difficulties and work got delayed due to the rains. However, the public was very supportive and did not abuse our staff as they understood the situation. We were unable to locate the fault in quick time because the cables were placed 15 years ago and the road alignment has changed. We found the cable after excavation of another area and that caused the delay as well,” said Mhalshekar.
