After first Norwester thunder and hail storms on Friday afternoon across the state, which wreaked havoc has massively destroyed power transmission lines and badly disrupted power supply.

But, the Power department and Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL) under the leadership of Minister Ratan Lal Nath soon after the storm, department has launched a massive restoration drive and within Saturday afternoon about 75% of the works of restoration had been completed.

Addressing a press conference here at the official chamber of Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath at Civil Secretariat on Saturday evening , Nath said that the heavy Norwester and intermittent rain and hail storm has also damaged many properties, besides uprooting electric pillars, trees and destroy several acres of crops  and power supply badly disrupted across all 23 divisions of TSECL.

Giving details of destruction caused by the first Norwester storm across Tripura, Nath said that TSECL has 23 divisions and 79 sub-divisions with 13 lakh electric pillars and 52,000 kilometers of power transmission lines including all categories of high tension and low tension lines.

The Friday afternoon’s storm had severely damaged the power transmission lines and power supply in Belonia and Sonamura divisions, said Nath and added a total of 337 kilometers of power transmission lines had been torn off due to the storm and uprooted 577 electric pillars.

He said that the storm has also destroyed 57 transformers out of a total 18,000 transformers. But, the department and all employees of the TSECL along with all out-source agencies started the massive restoration drive in a war footing manner. Within 24-hours of the devastated storm, about 75% of restoration work has been completed due to relentless efforts of the department’s all officers, engineers and general employees.

He said that within Sunday afternoon , the remaining restoration works will be completed. Nath said that there is a huge scarcity of manpower in the Power department and considering the upcoming Monsoon season, the department with Finance department’s nod will also recruit additional manpower to maintain seamless power supply to all people of the state.

Speaking in the press meet TSECL’s Managing Director (MD) Debasis Sarkar said that during the last fortnight due to intense heat waves across Tripura has suppressed power load during Durga Puja days. He said that the state recorded 335 MW of power consumption during Durga Puja days, but on Thursday (April 20), the power consumption has reached 344 MW and on average 340 MW  power consumption has been recorded during the last 15 days.

Meanwhile, sources in the State Emergency Operation Centre said that the Norwester storm and hail storm  have also severely damaged a large number of houses in seven districts of the state  and in Longtarai Valley subdivision, the sub divisional administration have also set relief camps, where a total 120 families were sheltered.

The administration has also provided interim relief of affected families with financial support for restoration of their damaged houses.

Official sources added that among the affected 7 districts and 12 subdivisions, a total of 2,461 houses were fully and partially damaged due to the storm.