2 days later, remote areas continue to reel under darkness

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 23

Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Ltd (HPSEBL) on Wednesday restored power supply in the towns of Rohru, Chopal, Jubbal and Kotkhai. But, hundreds of villages in Shimla district and tribal areas in Kinnaur and Lahaul valley continued to reel under darkness for the past 48 hours after the heavy snowfall damaged power transmission lines in the region.

Besides, there was no communication connectivity in the snowbound areas of Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur and some parts of Shimla district as the BSNL and other private service providers failed to restore connectivity after the weather started clearing up.

The power generation in the state has dipped to 20 per cent of its installed capacity due the lean discharge in rivers in the winter months.

The HPSEBL engineers say the heavy snowfall has resulted in the shutdown of 5,058 distribution transformers out of which 2,625 transformers have been restored on Wednesday. The remaining 2,483 transformers, which feed the snowbound areas of the state, are being recharged.

Kinnaur continued to reel under darkness as HPSEBL field staff failed to detect the fault in the transmission and the distribution system on Wednesday.

The power supply to Keylong in Lahaul-Spiti was restored from Thirot power house, said JP Kalta, MD, HPSEBL. “Employees are on the job to restore power supply in Kinnaur,” he added.

Villagers said that they had removed snow from transmission lines in the absence of linemen. Sources said, “Nearly 70 to 80 per cent of the posts are still vacant in the upper Shimla district and Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts.”

“The power has been restored in Rohru, Chopal, Jubbal, Kotkhai and Theog,” Kalta said, and added that most of the transformers would be restored in a couple of days.

“Himachal needs nearly 280 lakh units of electricity every day and most of this demand is being met by power houses which are running at 20 to 25 per cent of their capacity and as such there is no shortage of power in the state,” said Sunil Grover, MD, State Load Dispatch Centre Authority.