PDD claims to have restored 1000 mw supply in Valley

Darkness prevails in rural areas, consumers cry but Govt says crisis is over

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jan 10: Notwithstanding continued darkness in many of the rural areas and consumers complaining no-power no-voltage, officials of Power Development Department (PDD) today claimed that almost all the transmission and distribution systems had been fully repaired and entire 1,000 mw electricity supply had been restored in Kashmir valley.

Highly placed sources in PDD revealed to Early Times that the four-day-long power breakdown in Kashmir valley was the result of multiple faults caused to the Power Grid Corporation of India’s 400 kv Kishenpur-Wagora transmission line by heavy snowfall on Friday last. They said that faults of varied kinds and intensity occurred when PGCI’s Optical Fiber Cable, that runs over the high altitude pylons, got snapped and caused faults to the transmission line in Ramban area. On Saturday, PGCI authorities requisitioned a state helicopter for air dropping a team of its engineers for necessary repairs. The helicopter was provided immediately but it failed to drop the engineers at the desired spot.

Thereafter, PGCI requisitioned a specially trained pair of pilots and a helicopter from the Indian Air Force (IAF) which successfully carried out the ladder dropping despite extremely hostile weather conditions. In the next 24 hours, the team of PGCI engineers and technicians repaired the transmission lines as well as the OFC that is being used for earth wiring purposes as well as a carrier of telecommunication data. Capable of high resolution digital data transmission, including audio-visual data, PGCI’s OFC is being used by the corporation as well as a number of other government and private clients.

“400 kv transmission line as well as OFC have been fully restored by PGCI. Our engineers are, however, still repairing the faults on the state-run 220 kv Kishenpur-Pampore transmission line over Battery Chashma and other high altitude areas in Ramban”, a senior PDD official said. He said that the entire 1000 mw power supply had been restored in the Valley with the repairs of PGCI’s 400 kv line. According to him, repairs of 220 kv line would also provide a cushion. He claimed that PGCI’s line was capable of carrying power upto 900 mw.

Chief Engineer Maintenance and Rural Electrification Kashmir, Mohammad Muzaffar Matoo, confirmed that entire pre-crisis supply of 1,000 mw had been restored by this evening. He told Early Times late tonight that all grid stations, receiving stations and sub stations in the Valley had been charged by this evening, though the distribution system had been restored “only partially in south Kashmir”. He claimed that the system had been restored 100% in Srinagar, 90% in Budgam and over 80% in north Kashmir. He was hopeful that 90% restoration would be achieved in south Kashmir by Tuesday evening.

Mr Matoo revealed proudly that PDD had also restored the “highly challenging” transmission line from Kupwara to Tanghdaar that passes through the snowbound Sadhna Pass. He said that the faults on PGCI’s 400 kv and the state government’s 220 kv transmission lines over Ramban were not of very high intensity. “It became a crisis for two reasons. First, the problem occurred simultaneously to both the lines for the first time and, secondly, the terrain was inaccessible and highly snowbound”, he said.

Mr Matoo said that 720 to 730 mw of power was now again flowing into the Valley through the PGCI’s 400 kv line. He said that in addition to NHPC’s 120 mw from Uri, PDD was currently in possession of 120 mw to 140 mw from other power projects, mainly LJHP, Upper Singh and Gas Turbine of Pampore. “The crisis is over now. Supply would be restored upto 90% of areas in south Kashmir in next 24 hours”, Mr Matoo asserted. He said that in Bandipore district, only Arin and Athwatoo areas were still uncharged.

Notwithstanding the refrain of official claims, situation did not improve drastically in most of the areas in the Valley. Even in the capital city of Srinagar, not a single locality was provided power for 24 hours on Monday. Subscribers in many of the urban neighbourhoods in the fully metered areas complained that on the fourth day of the breakdown today, they got supply for not more than 12 hours. In non-metered areas, subscribers complained that the supply was “high erratic” and did not remain available for aggregate of more than 8 hours.

On the fourth day of the breakdown, mobile telephony remained badly disrupted as neither the calls nor SMS and internet services operated smoothly. After GPRS, BSNL’s Broadband too collapsed in most of the urban and rural localities. Internet failure affected ATMs, credit card utility and other banking services, private cable television networks (which are fully shut since Friday last). Most of the internet services operated through Tata’s Photon and data cards of other private cellular operators.

Reports from rural areas said that power was provided intermittently on rotational basis but it was nowhere available for more than 8 hours a day. Consumers from over a dozen villages, all over the Valley, complained to this newspaper that transmission and distribution systems were unaffected there but the authorities did not still restore supply. In certain areas, supply was provided for just one or two hours in the last 24 hours. Voltage was extremely low in entire Valley wherever the supply was restored.

CE M&RE Kashmir admitted that the voltage in “entire Kashmir is lowest of the season today”. He, however, attributed the fault to the Northern Grid and claimed that it could be due to shutdown of a power plant in Punjab or adjoining states.

Meanwhile, yet another respite came when over a hundred stranded trucks and other modes of transport arrived in Srinagar from Ramban and Banihal this evening. Beacon officials said that the highway had been fully cleared but it would remain operational only for one-way traffic from Jammu to Srinagar for initial few days. They said that extremely low sub-zero temperature had made the road surface dangerously slippery in Patnitop area besides some spots around Jawahar Tunnel.

END