Efforts on to restore power in flood-hit areas of 5 dists

Visakhapatnam: The power department is trying to restore electricity to flood-hit areas in Alluri Seetharama Raju, Konaseema, East Godavari, Eluru and West Godavari districts.
According to official estimates, 5,453 agricultural services and 71,443 domestic services were affected in about 400 villages in these five districts. The transmission network, including eight 33/11KV substations with 250 kilometres of 33KV line and 46 11KV feeders with 4,022 distribution transformers were damaged due to the floods.The damages have been pegged at 1.53 crore. These villages have plunged into darkness in the last several days.
Special chief secretary (energy) K Vijayanand conducted a review meeting with APEPDCL chairman and managing director K Santosha Rao on the restoration works.
The APEPDCL CMD said that power supply would be restored to the affected villages as soon as possible. “The water levels are receding fast and every effort is being made to supply electricity to these villages,” said Santosha Rao.
“About 36,000 domestic connections have already been restored in the last three days. Around 35,500 domestic services, which belong to the fully submerged mandals of Chintoor, VR Puram, Kunavaram and Yetapaka of ASR district and Kukunuru and Velarupadu mandals of Eluru district, could not be restored as of today. The APEPDCL has established a 24x7 call centre for each division. Several chief engineers and general managers have been deputed to these areas from corporate office,” said Santosha Rao.
The special chief secretary appreciated the round-the-clock efforts put in by the APEPDCL staff and officials in the restoration works amid adverse weather conditions. Vijayanand instructed the discom officials to constantly monitor the progress of the works. He also directed the discoms to depute executive engineers from other wings besides the operation wing for early restoration of power supply.
The special chief secretary later informed the progress of power restoration works to the state energy minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy. The minister emphasised the need for a concrete plan that could help reduce uncertainty after a disaster such as floods, cyclones and heavy gales etc.