Gujarat: Over 1,000 teams working to restore power in eight districts

More than 1,000 teams are working across eight districts of Gujarat to restore power in the aftermath of cyclone Biparjoy, a state government release said here on Friday evening.

Advance planning and evacuation of more than one lakh persons helped the state achieve 'zero casualties" as the cyclone battered Kutch and Saurashtra regions, the release quoted Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel as saying. Officials had said earlier in the day that about 1,000 villages are still without power as the cyclone uprooted hundreds of electric poles. The Kutch district, where the cyclone made landfall on Thursday evening, has borne the brunt of power failure. To restore electricity, 1,127 teams are working in the districts of Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Morbi, Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Rajkot and Porbandar, said the release, adding that as many as 51 teams have been deployed to maintain operations of 714 substations in these areas.

Forest department teams removed 581 fallen trees from the roads while 184 teams were deployed in and around the Gir Forest for the rescue of lions and other wild animals if any emergency arose, it said.

Commissioner of Relief Alok Kumar Pandey had said earlier that not a single person died due to any incident linked to the cyclone in the state. As soon as there was an announcement that a cyclone was heading for Gujarat, chief minister Patel alerted and guided the state machinery as well as the concerned district administrations, asking them to prepare a plan and find ways to mitigate its impact, said the release.

The state, thus, set an example in disaster management, it said, adding that chief minister Patel thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for their continuous support and guidance.

In the last four days, the CM visited the State Emergency Operations Centre in Gandhinagar twice every day to take stock of the situation and review preparedness of the administration, said the release. Among 1,09,000 persons shifted from coastal areas to temporary shelters there were 10,918 children, 5,070 senior citizens and 1,152 pregnant women, it said. In all, 19 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 12 teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were deployed on the state's coastline. The government had also deployed 1,005 medical teams and 504 ambulances in the coastal districts such as Kutch and Devbhumi Dwarka, the release said.