Around 7 p.m. on December 12, by which time cyclone Vardah had dealt a body blow to much of the city’s essential infrastructure, a small group of residents in the northern part of Thirumullavoyal adjoining Puzhal lake met residents of each streets in the neighbourhood, requesting them to clear the fallen trees in their streets from the following morning.
Around the same time on December 12, local Tangedco officials, led by their assistant engineer (Thirumullavoyal section), S. Senthil Kumar, met for a brief meeting at their Section Office to decide on an action plan. Following the meeting, the team headed towards the All India Radio premises in the locality to assess the damage to the power cables, poles and transformers.
Twenty-five High Tension (HT) electric poles at the sprawling AIR premises remained undamaged.
At 6.30 a.m. the next day, residents started clearing fallen trees from the streets as requested by the office bearers of Venketachalam Residents’ Welfare Association. A member of the Association was sent to inform the local Tangedco officials that they were clearing the fallen trees to help restore power supply in the neighbourhood.
“We were asked to do what we have been doing since Tuesday (December 13) morning: removing fallen trees from the streets. Residents and local Tangedco officials worked together to restore power supply in the neighbourhood in a day,” said Giri Ravanan, secretary, Venketachalam Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association in Thirumullavoyal.
It was a team effort by residents and Tangedco officials from northern Thirumullavoyal, which includes Venketachalam Nagar, Subramaniyam Nagar, Kamalam Nagar, Masilamani Nagar, SVT Colony, Thendral Nagar, S.S. Nagar, Thirumullavoyal Colony and Kulakarai Street.
Residents formed small groups with each consisting of four persons. They surveyed the neighbourhood, taking stock of the fallen trees and damaged poles and transformers on all the stretches.
Besides this, the residents coordinated with other residents in removing trees from their streets and dumped them on vacant lands.
One of the notable efforts by the residents was clearing the 1.5 kilometre-long Kulakarai Street of fallen trees. Around 30 residents took charge of this work.
With no mobile phone connectivity and roads blocked by fallen trees, three persons, each riding a bike, stepped out to inform Tangedco officials about what the residents were doing, and returned to the neighbourhood with directions from these officials on what should be done next.
On their part, Tangedco officials were clearing the two-kilometre-long route along which runs HT power lines from the Avadi sub-station to the main feeder points in the neighbourhood.
Of the 1,500 poles in Thirumullavoyal, 99 LT poles and 10 HT poles were damaged. Besides that, 102 transformers including 45 transformers with a capacity of 100 KV each, were damaged.
With six staff members — three helpers, two wiremen and one foreman — the Thirumullavoyal Tangedco team was working to restore power within their limits. There are around 17,000 consumers in this section. “HT power lines are the lifeline as they are capable of generating considerable amount of power, covering many areas.
“With 25 HT poles on the premises of AIR remaining undamaged, restoring power supply after residents had cleared trees that had fallen on electric poles was easy,” said Tangedco’s assistant engineer Senthil Kumar.
By 8.35 p.m. on December 13, power supply was completely restored in most of these areas. As a mark of appreciation for the efforts put in by Tangedco officials, residents of the neighbourhood honoured Tangedco’s assistant engineer (AE) for Thirumullavoyal Section, Senthil Kumar, at a small function in the neighbourhood, on January 2.
