Cable snaps,Writers’ loses power for hours

The snapping of the cable led to the shortage of 635 MW during the morning peak hour.

CESC officials said that the cable snapped at 10.47 am between Chakmir and Mahestala in South 24-Parganas leading to the tripping of two units at Budge Budge and another at Southern Generation station.

“Once the power line snaps then it gets isolated from the system,which is what happened today. The two plants,including two units of 250 MW each at Budge Budge and 165 MW at Southern Generation station,had to go offline as a result of this,” said an official of the CESC.

The power failure even resulted in snapping the hotlines that supplies power to important institutions in the city as well as hospitals.

Many surgical operations at SSKM and Calcutta Medical College were stalled after power supply to the hospitals got snapped at 11.30 am.

“We have an extra generator support,so we immediately used it in the OT today. Only one operation was being held at the gynaecological ward so our anaesthetic immediately took control of the situation. Power was restored in about 15 minutes,” said Debashish Bhattacharya,medical superintendent-cum-vice-president of SSKM.

At Calcutta Medical College,power was restored after nearly half an hour,due to which many operations were delayed for a while. “We have an emergency back-up,which was immediately charged up but there was complete darkness for half an hour. Even the emergency was shut as all systems,including the computers,were down. Power was finally restored at 11.05 am,” said Harekrishna Chanda,Deputy Superintendent,Calcutta Medical College.

At the Writers’ Buildings,the lifts went out of service. So when the chief minister reached there,he was forced to take the stairs along with others like state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta and state Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen. Many were forced to work with emergency lights.

The power shortage also resulted in the disruption of Metro services with three up and down trains delayed. Although no train services were cancelled,the trains were over-crowded due to the delays. Traffic signals were also off at many crossings,including important junctions like Rashbehari crossing and Prince Anwar Shah crossing.

CESC officials said that by 3.30 pm,power had been restored to most places except a few pockets like Camac Street,Central Avenue and Theatre Road.

“With time barely left before the Pujas,we will now be checking all the underground cables to ensure that such accidents do not happen during the festive season. We are investigating the reasons behind it,” said an official of CESC.

The last time that a high-voltage cable had snapped was nearly two-three years ago when a heavy downpour had resulted in waterlogging. Meanwhile,CESC had to import nearly 600 MW from West Bengal State Electricity and Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) to tide over the crisis.