CESC takes measures to combat heavy rains, water-logging

During this time of the year, heavy rains lash through the city coupled with storms and water-logging, making it difficult for the common man to carry out his day-to-day activities. To combat this, the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) has taken up several measures to serve its customers.

Avijit Ghosh, vice-president (Distribution), said: "This year, CESC has made special arrangements to meet the monsoon challenges. Last year, emergency calls to CESC during July-September went up nearly 20 percent — the maximum rainfall recorded was 106 ml on July 26, 2016."

Providing uninterrupted power to the drainage pumping stations run by the Kolkta Municipal Corporation (KMC) is a major challenge for CESC. "We have given high priority to keep the Municipal drainage pumping stations in best of health. Special attention has been given to the 20 pumping stations located across the city.

As a precautionary measure, arrangements are in place for quick restoration of power supply to pumping stations through automation in the unlikely event of feeder outages at drainage pumping stations," Ghosh said. The number of CESC emergency mobile vans attending to monsoon fault repairs day-and-night has been raised to 200 from 142 this year.

The company's round-the-clock breakdown infrastructure has also been expanded with provisions for positioning fault repair personnel at vulnerable locations.

The number of high capacity generator support on hot stand-by has also been increased to serve affected consumers during heavy rains. The CESC Call Centre infrastructure (1912) has also been reinforced. Apart from the existing CESC Call Centre, two special monsoon helpline numbers (9831079666 and 9831083700) have been added.