Cyclone Yaas: Bengal power utilities better prepared than Amphan time
The two power utilities of WestBengal on Monday claimed that they are better prepared forCyclone Yaas, which is likely to hit the state and Odisha onMay 26, than they were before last years storm, Amphan.
The state-owned West Bengal State ElectricityDistribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) and private utilityCESC Limited, which supplies power to Kolkata and adjoiningareas including Howrah, said they aim to minimiseinconvenience to consumers.
“This year we are better prepared than the time ofAmphan. Then we had a shortage of manpower as many of them hadgone to their hometown due to the lockdown during the firstwave.
“But this year we have 2,500 people on the ground,which is more than double that we had last year,” CESC VicePresident (Distribution) Avijit Ghosh said.
He said that it will keep restoration gangs at policestation levels and ward levels across CESCs network. Some 20per cent of the network of CESC is overhead, which is moreprone to disruptions.
The number emergency facilities have gone up this yearas Covid-19 vaccine cold chain centres and temporary Covidpoints have been set up, Ghosh said.
“We will try to ensure uninterrupted services,” hesaid.
The coordination with other agencies like the policeand the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is better this timefollowing the experience of Cyclone Amphan which had hit thestate in June last year.
A WBSEDCL official said that priority will be given tothe restoration of power lines to the medical establishmentssuch as hospitals, safe homes, vaccine storage areas, drinkingwater lines, mobile towers and crematoriums.
Leaves of all employees have been suspended, and atleast three gangs will be deployed at each block of the stateunder its distribution area, the official said.
Both CESC and WBSEB set up emergency call centres toreceive complaints.
For CESC, the numbers are 3501-1912/4403-1912/18605001912.
The dedicated numbers of WBSEBs round-the-clockcontrol room are 8900793503 and 8900793504.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)
