Owais Ayoub
Srinagar 09 January (KNB): Power disruption in parts of Srinagar and other districts of Kashmir during the recent snowfall, which started from January 5th, was mostly due to the damaging of power transformers in addition of other snags following the accumulation of water in its tanks, said a person privy to Power Development Department’s (PDD) developments.
According to one of the workers of PDD, the power disruptions during the recent snowfall in Kashmir’s different parts were witnessed due to the failure of some of the areas’ transformers. “As you might have seen on social media that the department’s workers had given all their efforts in order to restore the electricity. But the water seeping into the tanks of transformers could not have been stopped which contributed to the disruption of power supply in some areas,” a worker said.
As per reports around 150 transformers were damaged in Kashmir by January 07 and among which 50 were mended later on. “The proper encasing of transformers might have averted the possibilities of damage incurred to the most of it during bad weather conditions. The reason for water entering into the tanks is the shrinking of rubber washer fixed above on the transformers,” said a worker.
He further said that the power lines were restored immediately, after being affected by the snow, with the timely intervention of department’s linemen and other workers which resulted in the restoration of power supply to the affected areas of Kashmir. “There were some rural areas bereft of electricity, and that was mostly because of the heavy load on the feeders. Almost all 11KV are working properly now and if there are some areas without electricity that is due to the damaged transformers,” he added.
Pertinently, the Chief Engineer KPDCL, Aijaz Ahmad Dar and other officials were yesterday on visit to Hurpura Shopian in pursuance of examining the power disruption in the area following the heavy load on the feeder which had aggravated the problems of electricity failure.
However, the PDD is leaving no stone unturned with the restoration of electricity in the times of weather vagaries, but what’s the use if the department has to every year come up against such problems, without placing any robust system in place to tackle the menace of power disruption. (KNB)