The city and its suburbs have been witnessing a number of civic infrastructure work — stormwater drain construction, installation of MetroWater pipelines and construction of flyovers.
A side effect of these activities is power disruption. As construction work involves digging of roads, contractors inadvertently damage underground cable network, thereby causing power disruption.
The disruption caused to feeder cables has become a headache for maintenance officials of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco).
Officials blamed
Because of the damage done by the contractors the Electricity Board (EB) officials face the music from the public, who demand that the electricity supply be restored immediately.
Senior officials have taken a serious note of this issue. As part of the solution, a coordination meeting was organised by Tangedco at its headquarters on June 6 where officials of the Chennai Corporation, Metrowater and private telephone operators participated.
Tangedco Chairman and Managing Director Vikram Kapur chaired the meeting.
A senior official of Tangedco said the meeting’s agenda was to minimise power disruptions caused by damage to the cable network by other civic agencies engaged in infrastructure work.
Information sharing
Officials at the meeting decided to create a working plan for better coordination between agencies by sharing information about projects in various places of the city.
They would share the project details highlighting the locality, date and relevant information through a social media group and the local EB officials would be present to avoid damage to power lines. A few years ago, the Greater Chennai Corporation organised Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) working committee meetings, where all civic agencies including Highways, Metropolitan Transport Corporation and CMDA participated.
A senior official of the Corporation said the CUMTA working committee meeting used to discuss planned civic projects and necessary action needed to avoid any inconvenience to the public.
However this meeting had been defunct for sometime, the official added.