Port Blair, Oct 30: Caught pant down, the electricity department today issued a press note in reply to Andaman Sheekha’s news item published on 12.09.2012 regarding more than 24 hour long power cut of Middle Andaman.
“The Power Supply of 08 Transformers within a span of 5 Kms under Billiground and Swadesh Nagar Panchayats in Middle Andaman was interrupted on 11th & 12th September, 2012 for a long duration was reported in a local daily on 12.09.2012. This interruption was due to line fault caused due to heavy wind and rainfall, which was beyond the control of the department,” the SE electricity department today said in a press release.
He said that on that day at around 10.30 AM the particular feeder tripped on Earth Fault from Rangat Bay Power House and could not be charged due to sustained fault. After intense search in the stretch of around 54 Kms. from Rangat Bay to Nimbudera, the fault was identified between Thoratang and Nimbudera in the late evening around 06.00 PM. The insulators & lightening arrester had damaged and apart from this falling of tree & tree branches had occurred at different locations owing to heavy wind and rainfall on that day.
By the time the fault was located at 06.00 PM, it was dark & misty. To rectify the fault a minimum of 2-3 Hrs. work was further required. Amidst the darkness and prevailing inclement weather it was difficult to rectify the fault as it may have caused serious injury to the workers and needed isolation of another feeder feeding entire stretch of Mayabunder & Diglipur as both the feeders are drawn on the same pole.
“On a larger public interest, the department made a difficult choice to isolate the defective area having 08 Transformers in order to keep feeding the entire stretch from Rangat to Diglipur consisting of 74 Transformers. The next day the faults were rectified and the feeder was charged at around 09.30 AM. As such there was no intentional delay on the part of the department,” he added.
