Narrow escape for 25 schoolchildren as high tension wire falls on bus

GURUGRAM: It was a narrow escape for 25 school children travelling in a school bus after a high tension electric wire fell on the bus on Monday morning at Kabir Bhawan in older part of the city.

Wariness, caution and the presence of mind displayed by the driver and the conductor prevented a major tragedy to happen. Even though a deadly mishap may have been averted, it again highlighted the lackadaisical approach of the officials of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) and the crumbling power infrastructure in the city.

On August 15 this year, six children aged between seven and fifteen years received sever burn injuries due to an explosion in high voltage wires that was surrounding two street lamp posts. Just a week after the incident, Anju aged 12 years succumbed to her injuries. She had received 80 percent of the burn injuries.

Poor condition of wires that are unable to bear heavy electric load in addition to lack of proper resources in maintaining are resulting in getting wrecked wires. There have been a lot of complaints by the city residents that how continuous sparks in the electric wires around various areas remain unattended for a long time by the DHBVN officials.

These conditions worsen during the rainy season. The situation turns grim in the old areas of the city where low hanging naked electricity wires with wrong connections can result in a major catastrophe in dense areas like Sadar Bazaar, Gurdwara road, Rajiv Nagar and Hans Enclave market.