Residents of some parts of south Bangalore, which witnessed a blackout on Wednesday night, were without power for nearly 20 hours. Damage to power lines and poles was extensive. Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) restored power lines by Thursday evening.
More than the torrential rains, the gutsy wind uprooted at least 55 trees, including a couple of coconut trees in Sampangiram Nagar, snapping power supply lines. Winds lashed parts of south Bangalore for nearly an hour from about 6.30 p.m. Bescom officials said 46 poles were brought down following which power lines snapped on Wednesday evening.
“The worst areas affected were Hosakerehalli, C K Achukkattu and Girinagar under Rajarajeshwari Nagar W1 sub-division,” said D Nagaraj, Executive Engineer (South), Bescom.
Other areas that suffered a blackout were Vinayaka Nagar, ISRO Layout and Sampangirama Nagar where six electric poles were damaged after a coconut tree got uprooted. Apart from this, 10 poles fell to the ground in Koramangala and eight in Rajajinagar. However, power was restored in these areas by Thursday early morning.
N Jayanthi, General Manager, Customer Relations, Bescom said that special teams worked all night to restore power supply. “Apart from trees being uprooted, there were disturbances in supply as in many places where branches of trees had fallen on supply lines,” she said. Only certain parts of the city received heavy rainfall, said B Puttanna, Director of the Meteorological Department. “No rainfall was recorded by any of the rain gauge instruments set up in the city.”
