The midnight strike by the HMWS&SB excavator machine that punctured the 132-KV cable line at Lallaguda could prove to be expensive for the APTransco in terms of funds as well as efforts.
On Wednesday, the fifth day after the incident, the power transmission officials are still scratching their heads unable to guess the actual length of the cable that needs replacement.
Standing at one end of the 100-metre-long stretch that was dug up to remove the old cable, officials of various levels could be seen putting their heads together to come up with a practical solution for the immediate problem. The new cable line unrolled into the 1.5-metre-deep trench runs alongside a broken pipeline throwing up copious amounts of sewage. The slimy water is being diverted through another channel so as not to hamper the cable works. And by the side of the sewerage pipe, not apparent but existing, is a drinking water pipeline, also supposedly leaking smaller quantities (consumers beware of ‘protected water'!).
“We are unable to understand the extent of damage to the cable. There is sewage ingress into the line, and even the manufacturers of the cable could not suggest a way to measure the seepage ,” says an APTransco engineer on the site. The task of replacing the whole stretch up to the junction box at the end of the Lalapet flyover will take well over 10 days, he says. Instead, to expedite the restoration works and resume the supply, the officials may take chances by joining the cable at an arbitrary location.
“In such a case, if there is moisture further in, life of the cable components will be reduced due to flow of fault current,” the engineer says. This is not the first time that the HMWS&SB has damaged a cable. On three occasions, the same 132-KV feeder was subject to excavator blows.
