Electrocution, power outages due to rain: State starts control room at Vidyut Bhawan

Kolkata: With a prediction of rainfall in south Bengal districts owing to a fresh depression, the state power department has issued an advisory to all the district administrations, civic bodies and the district power officials to ensure the precautionary measures ought to be taken to avert electricution and power-outages

A 24x7 control room was opened at Vidyut Bhawan on Tuesday. Power minister Aroop Biswas and other senior officials of the department remained present at the control room since morning and took stock of the precautionary measures taken by the department.

The minister and other top officials held a video conference with the district officials and gave necessary instructions.

The control room opened at Vidyut Bhawan will remain operational for the next three days.

Minister said that awareness drives have been undertaken to make people aware.

The power department personnel are conducting awareness drives in the districts using microphones. Messages are being delivered to the consumers to make people aware what they should avoid in case of inundation. The district officials have also been directed to publish advertisements in newspapers. They have been asked to stop power supply if transformers, feeder boxes, sub-stations are under water. Around 1,889 mobile vans and adequate teams have been deployed throughout the state.

WhatsApp numbers have been published by the department so that the people can post their problems with pictures. The numbers are 8900793503 and 8900793504.

A toll free number has also been floated to register the issues of the consumers. The number is 19121. Minister is expected to hold a meeting at Vidyut Bhawan on Tuesday night to take stock of the situation.

Meanwhile, the coastal districts received rainfall on Tuesday due to the impact of the depression. The city and other south Bengal districts mostly remained cloudy on Tuesday and light to moderate rain lashed some parts.

The MeT office had predicted that the coastal districts would receive rainfall on Tuesday.

The city and other adjoining districts witnessed a gush of wind on Tuesday evening.