Even as life is limping back to normality in the districts ravaged by cyclone Fani on May 3, the Odisha government on Wednesday presented a preliminary report putting the losses at ₹11,942 crore.
The report was presented to the visiting inter-ministerial Central team assessing the cyclone damages. The cyclone affected 1.6 crore people in 18,388 villages and 51 towns in 14 districts of Odisha.
A detailed memorandum on the damages and funds required for relief and restoration will be submitted to the Centre after the estimation of the actual loss, State Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi told reporters after the meeting with the Central team here
Joint Secretary in the Union Home Ministry, Vivek Bhardwaj, who headed the 11-member Central team, appreciated the Odisha government’s action in providing relief and assistance to the affected people.
The districts affected by Fani are: Puri, Khurda, Cuttack, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Angul, Dhenkanal, Nayagarh, Ganjam, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur.
More than five lakh houses were damaged in the region, including 1,89,095 houses and apartments in Puri district alone. Puri district was in the eye of the storm which caused 64 human casualties. Lakhs of livestock also perished in the cyclone, which damaged summer crops, plantations and sanctuaries. While the cyclone caused losses to government properties and the Jagannath temple to the tune of ₹5,175 crore, an amount of ₹6,767 crore was required for relief and response, the State said.
The highest estimated loss of ₹1,159 core was suffered by the power sector managed by the Energy Department. The losses in the Panchayati Raj and the Drinking Water departments stand at ₹587 crore.
The Works Department suffered losses to the tune of ₹597 crore, the Forest and Environment Department ₹537 crore, the Housing and Urban Development ₹524 crore, and the Rural Development Department suffered a loss of ₹435 crore, according to the preliminary report. As many as 44 teams of the National Disaster Response Force, 20 teams of the Odisha Disaster Response Force and 525 fire and disaster response teams, including around 200 teams from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal are engaged in the post-cyclone work, the government said. While relief work was on in the affected areas, the government said 339 tankers, 214 generator sets and 1,029 PVC tanks were deployed for ensuring water supply. While 100% water supply was restored in Bhubaneswar, 90% water supply was restored in Puri town. All roads in Bhubaneswar and Puri were cleared.
As regards power supply, the government said 80% was restored in Bhubaneswar. While restoration work was started in Puri two days ago, the main areas of the coastal town were provided electricity on Wednesday.
