Bengaluru: The flood waters may have receded in several districts in north Karnataka but thousands of villagers may have to celebrate the coming Independence Day in the dark as it may take five to six days to restore power supply.
The unprecedented floods after the release of several lakh cusecs of water by neighbouring Maharashtra in the last 10-15 days, has drastically changed the landscape in North Karnataka with many people taking refuge in relief centres after the floods washed away everything they had including their dreams. They remained out of reach of the rest of the world with no power supply to charge their cellphones. Mr Rajappa, director (technical), Hubli Electricity Supply Company Limited (HESCOM) told Deccan Chronicle that 350 to 400 villagers remained without power for the last eight days with the flood waters yet to recede preventing workers from restoring supply. Still, 95 villages in Uttara Kannada district, over 250 villages in Belagavi and Bagalkote and a few villages in Dharwad are yet to get power. In Belagavi city, power supply has been almost completely restored after residents spent four days in the dark.
The officer explained that three 33 kv stations were inundated with flood water and unless they were cleaned and serviced, it would not be possible to provide electricity to over 80 villages. The floods have damaged around 20,000 electric poles, thousands of transformers and hundreds of kilometres of power cables. The Munavalli power station is virtually under water for the past one week.
Besides staff of HESCOM, the services of private linemen have been requisitioned to restore power connections without delay.
