North & South 24-Parganas plunge into darkness as power supply snaps

Kolkata: The power situation in North and South 24-Parganas has been badly hit by cyclone Amphan as thousands of electricity poles have been uprooted and overhead high tension lines snapped, said Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, the state power minister said on Thursday.

The restoration teams of West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Limited (WBSEDCL) could not reach the spots in many areas as the trees that got uprooted are yet to be removed.

"It will take some more days to restore the power supply. The work is being carried out on a war footing and WBSEDCL is leaving no stone unturned to restore the supply," he said. Chattopadhyay is manning a control room round the clock along with a team of senior officials.

He said in West Midnapur district, 52 sub-stations had developed a snag and because of the tireless work of the restoration team, 42 have become operational by Thursday afternoon. Out of 315 feeder connections that got snapped, 115 have been restored.

According to the official many areas in Kolkata are still without power as the electricity supply lines got snapped after branches of the trees broke and fell on them. "We are all working and hopefully power situation will improve within a day or two," he said.

He further added, said while the extent of damage is yet to be ascertained, but it will run up to several hundred crores. Amphan had hit the Sagar Island on Wednesday afternoon and the vast areas surrounding Sagar Island including Pathar Pratima, Namkhana, Gosaba, Kulpi in South 24-Parganas, Haroa, Hingalgunj, Sandeshkhali and Basirhat plunged into darkness after the cyclone.