Chennai: Rains, winds, mud and waterlogged areas in the open fields are no hurdle for these Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) men, striving hard to restore power in cyclone-hit areas.
Despite the dampness all around, sleeping under the open sky and sometimes forced to even have their food perched atop poles, these TNEB men are exhausting themselves by clearing damaged and broken poles and replacing them with new ones in the affected areas.
It is now a familiar sight here that some sparsely-dressed TNEB workers even get their food delivered right at their work spot atop the poles, while another group cook meals for their colleagues on the roadside, unmindful of the roadside dirt and muck.
Tired TNEB workers eating on the roadside.
As cyclone ‘Gaja’ uprooted over one lakh electric poles in the delta and southern districts, TNEB staff are working round-the-clock to restore power in those villages and towns that went without power for the past nine days.
Now, slowly their untiring efforts have started to show results, since around 70 per cent of work has been completed in the stretch between Nagapattinam and Velankanni.
A worker having his food atop an EB pole.
Similar is the situation in other districts like Pudukkottai, Tiruvarur and Thanjavur, where thousands of electric poles were brought down by the strong winds.
General secretary, Central Organisation of Tamil Nadu Electricity Employees, affiliated to CITU, S Rajendran, said, “Once, if there was a natural disaster, the military would undertake relief work. Now, things have changed. When I visited the cyclone-affected areas, it was our EB staff who were working overtime to restore power.”
“The government should at least recognise the contribution of these contractual TNEB workers, and fulfill their demands including making them permanent staff,” added Rajendran.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a TNEB contractual worker in Kallaan village of Nagapattinam district, requesting anonymity said, “It’s been nine days. Still it is raining, and sometimes we are unable to bear the cold. But, we are determined to set things right. The villagers are supporting us in every way possible, and are also providing us food.”
Over 24,000 local workers from TNEB have been pressed into action. Another 5,000 workers from other districts have also been roped in to fast track the work.
The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) already stated that a total of 22,680 high-tension poles and 63,156 low-tension poles were damaged in the winds. Tangedco officials said that they conducted a study in Nagapattinam, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Dindigul, Ramnad, Sivagangai, Theni and Cuddalore districts.
They finally concluded that Pudukkottai district suffered the worst damage, as more number of poles were either uprooted or damaged.
Earlier, preliminary reports stated that a total of 84,836 poles were affected with around 1,152 km of high-tension lines and 3,087 km of low-tension lines snapped. In addition, a total of 841 distribution transformers have been damaged. Over all, 1,13,566 electric poles were damaged.
Tangedco officials claim that about 70 per cent of works relating to power restoration was completed and normalcy would return in the next two to three days.
