Month after cyclone Nisarga, 36,000 houses remain unlit

Fear of COVID-19, heavy rainfall have stalled restoration work in over 90 villages

Uprooted: A pair of electric poles damaged due to Cyclone Nisarga at Mhasla in Raigad district.

A month after Cyclone Nisarga made landfall in Raigad district, almost 36,000 households are still living in the dark, with electricity restoration work slowing down due to the pandemic and heavy rainfall.

The restoration work is still under way at 39 of the 80 villages in Shrivardhan Taluka and 53 of the 101 villages in Mhasla Taluka.Of 32,000 power consumers in Shrivardhan, 7,500 have had electricity supply resumed. In Mhasla, power supply has resumed for 9,198 of 20,635 consumers.

“The delay in the restoration is due to the fear of COVID-19. While some of the villages have been declared containment zones, in other cases, workers have to come from the containment zones. The heavy rainfall that began on July 3 has made it more difficult to do the restoration work,” Raigad District Magistrate and Collector Nidhi Choudhary said.

She also said some of the teams that had come there to work, could not cope with the harsh weather and the hilly terrains. A total of 1,976 villages were affected by the cyclone.

“We are now trying to source more manpower from within the district to carry out the restoration work,” Ms. Choudhari said.

Of the ₹373 crore relief provided by the State government, ₹20 lakh has been disbursed to the fishing community while ₹167 crore has been disbursed for repair of damaged houses. A total of ₹242 crore is meant for housing damage relief.

“Almost 90% of the people whose homes were damaged have received the relief fund till now. This is the priority area for disbursing funds,” Ms. Choudhary said.

A total of 1.83 lakh houses, 16,060 hectare crops — largely comprising coconuts, mango, supari and cashew, 15,000 government schools and 186 private schools also have faced damages.

The relief amount for agriculture is ₹50,000 per hectare of land, which is expected to be revised.

“We are expecting a revision in the agriculture loss relief amount. As of now, we are making payment as per the current provision and once the new government resolution comes in, we will pay the additional amount,” Ms. Choudhary said.