Lakhs remain in dark for 12 days as Phailin uprooted towers

With lakhs of people still spending their nights in darkness due disruption of power supply due to cyclone Phailin, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today asked the energy department to complete the task by November 5.
"The Chief Minister has directed to ensure power supply in all cyclone affected areas including Ganjam by November 5," Energy Minister A K Sahu said after attending a meeting presided over by Patnaik.
Stating that the restoration work has been delayed due to intermittent rains following a well marked low pressure in the Bay of Bengal and the demand by the farmers to restore lines and poles fallen on the cultivated land, Sahu said despite this, efforts are on to provide alternative arrangements to install poles and draw lines.

The minister said that in Ganjam as many as 4 lakh electric poles have been damaged and the loss to electricity network has been more than 70 per cent of the total damage.
As per the estimate, the Energy Department has suffered maximum loss due to the cyclone and flood and around Rs 1,048.14 crore assistance has been sought from the Centre to restore power supply in the affected areas.
Meanwhile, official sources said that of the total 38.76 lakh electricity consumers, the government had been able to supply power to about 33 lakh households. Of about 7.32 electricity consumer in southern districts, power supply has been given to 2.67 lakh households.

All the consumers in northern and western region of the state are being provided with electricity, the official claimed adding that the places which still remained inundated with flood or rain water could not get electricity.