Visakhapatnam: The cyclone Hudhud, which brought Vizag city to its knees on October 12, 2014, also made the city plunge into darkness for almost a week. But as promised by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, the Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited took up the project of revamping the existing overhead distribution network to underground system in coastal areas of Visakhapatnam to withstand natural calamities like Hudhud.
Director (Operations) of APEPDCL, B. Seshu Kumar, said, “We had recently submitted the detailed project report for laying power cables below the surface with an estimated cost of Rs 720 crore. The project would be financially assisted by the World Bank.”
The heavy downpour accompanied by winds gushing at a speed of 200-220 kmph on October 12 severely pounded the power distribution mechanism in the city, which ripped out about 4,800 transformers and uprooted about 56,000 electricity poles, costing the APEPDCL about Rs 700 crore. But unfortunately, APEPDCL is still been waiting for Hudhud compensation.
“We had submitted the state government a report as to the magnitude of damages, but we didn’t receive any funds so far. But as Andhra Pradesh was selected as part of the ‘Power for All’ programme, we had already been supplying 24x7 power to Vizag city. The underground cable laying works cover about 21 substations in Visakhapatnam which dot the coastline, which are readily devastated by the onslaught of disasters due to their proximity to the sea. We had considered this point while selecting the substations for these works. We are going to call tenders soon for the underground cable laying works,” he added.
