Heavy rain, storm render city residents ‘powerless’

Tribune Reporters

Ludhiana, May 18

Heavy rain and storm that lashed the city late last night to early hours in the morning wreaked havoc on power distribution and supply network in the city with most parts of the city going ‘powerless’ for more than eight hours.

PSPCL suffers loss of Rs 1.80-cr infra

At the same time, 134 distribution transformers, 719 electric poles, one high-tension cable, a cable tower and 2.45-km length of transmission cables were damaged by heavy rain and storm. “The PSPCL has suffered a financial loss of around Rs 1.80 crore in terms of power supply infrastructure and equipment,” said SR Vashishat, SPCL Chief Engineer/Central Zone.

While power supply was restored in some parts by 8 am on Thursday, supply remained shut in many other affected areas, including posh localities, till noon or evening.

With power supply remaining elusive in major parts of the city till mid-day, the people in affected areas had to go without water supply as well in the morning and afternoon with tube wells remaining non-functional due to power failure in many localities, including Ghumar Mandi, Civil Lines, Haibowal, Green Park, Sarabha Nagar, PAU residential complex, Humbran Road, residential colonies along Ferozepur Road, Sidhwan Canal and most of busy commercial hubs and residential areas in the old city area.

15 big trees uprooted at various locations

Muncipal Corporation’s Horticulture wing official Kirpal Singh said they were informed of around 15 uprooted trees at various locations.

Claiming that staff had been deployed right at the break of dawn for rectification of line faults, repair of snapped cables, erection of uprooted electricity poles, restoration of damaged distribution transformers and fallen towers of high-tension cables, officials of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) said power supply was being restored in a phased manner and near normal supply was resumed in all affected areas by 4 pm.

The officials said while the overall assessment of damage caused to power distribution infrastructure in the Central Zone was still being carried out, reports received from divisional offices indicated that in nearly 35 per cent of the total feeders (distribution lines) in Ludhiana East, Ludhiana West, Suburban and Khanna circles under the Central Zone were shut down for four to 10 hours during the day and intervening night.

At the same time, 134 distribution transformers, 719 electric poles, one high-tension cable, a cable tower and 2.45-km length of transmission cables were damaged by heavy rain and storm. “The PSPCL has suffered a financial loss of around Rs 1.80 crore in terms of power supply infrastructure and equipment,” said SR Vashishat, SPCL Chief Engineer/Central Zone.

The city experienced a tumultuous night as high-velocity winds wreaked havoc, uprooting at least 15 big trees and reportedly causing damage to a few street light poles. The storm left its mark on various areas, with reports of fallen trees and broken infrastructure.

After receiving information, the Municipal Corporation (MC) responded to the crisis, dispatching teams to clear roads obstructed by fallen trees and restore traffic movement. MC’s Horticulture wing official Kirpal Singh said they were informed of around 15 uprooted trees in locations such as Deepak Hospital Road, Jawahar Nagar Camp, Rishi Nagar, Atam Park area and Guru Nanak Pura. Their primary focus was to remove the damaged trees and reopen affected roads.

It is learnt that trees fell down in some other areas as well. Notably, the MC is yet to implement a numbering system for the trees within the city, making it challenging to identify and assess the scale of the damage accurately.

A source in the MC said a few street light poles also bore the brunt of the storm’s fury. Inder Aggarwal, a former councillor, highlighted the incident on Shingar Cinema Road where a street light pole fell due to the storm’s impact. He expressed concern that other poles might follow suit, emphasising that the concrete base of these poles had weakened over time.

Refuting the claims, MC Executive Engineer Manjitinder Singh said no street light pole broke down as a result of the high-velocity winds. A pole on Shingar Cinema Road broke down as a car had collided with it. Furthermore, another incident involved a traffic light pole near Vardhman Chowk on Chandigarh Road, which also did not fall due to the storm, he said.

Three of family injured as roof collapses

Mandi Ahmedgarh: Three members of a family of Dehliz village were injured when the roof of their house collapsed after a wall of the neighbour’s house fell on it due to high-velocity winds last night. Ahmedgarh SDM Harbans Singh said officials had been deployed to assess the loss incurred by the family. The storm also wrecked havoc on rice shellers of the regionin Ludhiana and Malerkotla districts. The traders, said goods and fixtures worth crores were destroyed as a large number of sheds were uprooted.