Power supply has been restored in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts, though partially, and the pace of restoration work has been speeded up with the use of technology on the suggestion of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, according to Energy Secretary Ajay Jain.
Supply is expected to be restored to around 90 per cent of the households in the city in the next two days. Of the 7 lakh connections in the city, only 2.74 lakh have been powered till now and supply to the remaining households is expected to be restored by Sunday.
The power supply to essential services was restored in Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts on Thursday night. Only partial supply could be restored in these two districts due to meagre infrastructure (as there was only one 220 kv sub station in Vizianagaram district and there was not even one in Srikakulam district).
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These two districts were being supplied electricity through alternative routes on the directions of Mr Chandrababu Naidu. “It’s for the first time in the history of Andhra Pradesh that so many high tension towers of AP Transco, NTPC Simhadri and PowerGrid had fallen due to a cyclone. The damage is colossal and each line has to be checked individually,” the Energy Secretary told mediapersons on Friday.
In all, 33 KV lines have be checked for 2,700 km, 11 KV lines for 18,000 km and LT lines have to be checked for 42,000 km. “When I was CMD of AP Transco in 2010, two towers had fallen in Adilabad and 75 per cent of the district had to go without power for 21 days,” Mr. Ajay Jain recalled and said that Google Mapping of the electricity towers and lines has been done on the suggestion of the Chief Minister and an action plan was formulated to adopt technology for speedy restoration of power.