It’s official! The electricity department is still grappling with the loss caused by the destruction of property including electric poles and transformers across Salcete even as officials put the estimate loss to close to Rs 50 lakh in the taluka.
Some parts of Salcete, including Nessai, were still without power supply since Sunday, even as the department managed to restore the worst hit coastal village of Colva only past midnight. Colva village bore the brunt of nature’s fury during the cyclonic winds with a number of poles uprooted and electric lines destroyed on Sunday.
Executive Engineer, Santosh Lolienkar told The Goan tha this department lost as many as 20 electric poles, besides other electric material worth around Rs 20 lakh. “We barely managed to restore power supply to the worst hit Colva village past midnight, but still there are problems relating to low tension lines”, Lolienkar said.
Salcete’s interior villages also faced the brunt of the cyclonic winds. Restoration work of the damaged lines is still in progress in areas such as Nessai in Sao Jose de Areal village. Executive Engineer A Devadasan told the media that the power department has sustained a loss of property amounting to Rs 25 lakh. The departmental engineers along with linemen worked overnight and restored the supply at most of the locations.However supply to some areas is yet to be restored mainly due to recurring winds and heavy rain. The restoration work is in progress on war footing and the same is expected to be completed within the next 24 hrs”, he said.
As many as four power transformers were damaged in the electricity Div IV on Sunday, causing hardships to the power consumers in the villages of Rachol and Sao Jose de Areal.
He said though Margao city is connected to the underground cabling network, power supply to the city was disrupted due tofrequent fluctuations in the incoming supply from the 220KV Xeldem line.
