Chennai: Residents of Chromepet spent 18 hours of their weekend without power as two government departments passed the buck on damaged underground EB cables, delaying repairs. The area was plunged into darkness around 10.30 pm Saturday night and restored at 5.30 pm on Sunday.
“Though we were assured of immediate rectification, it took 17 hours to restore power supply. I could not rest this Sunday, which was my only day off,” said S. Girija, a resident.
According to EB officials, underground cables were damaged during relaying of GST road near MIT flyover by the highways department. EB officials further added that the highways department had not informed them about the ongoing work.
According to sources, the highways department had ‘accidentally’ damaged EB cables while re-laying the road. Though the Chrompet GH managed the situation with a generator backup, the 60 odd families living in service Road, New Colony 17th Cross and Mahalakshmi Colony experienced a tough time.
Chrompet EB officials are agitated over the situation and say that it has been happening frequently in the recent days.
“We were completely oblivious about the re-laying works. Also, the delay is due to the unavailability of repair kit as we do not keep a spare,” an official said.
Assistant Divisional engineer of Highways department for GST road attributed the failure to substandard work done by EB.
“Cables, which usually should be 1.5 meters below the road surface, were found very much on the surface while we were scrapping the road. We did not anticipate it,” he added.
Social activist, V. Santhanam said there should be coordination between both the departments.
“Such chaos can be prevented with the presence of EB official while relaying the road,” he added.
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