Jena upset over slow power restoration after nor’wester

Bhubaneswar: Chief secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena has expressed displeasure and disappointment over the slow restoration work by the Tata Power Central Odisha Distribution Limited (TPCODL) of electricity in the city after the power utilities got damaged in the nor’wester on Thursday evening.
Replying to a tweet of the energy department, the chief secretary said the restoration in Bhubaneswar is extremely slow. He mentioned that if the response to a kalbaisakhi is this slow, just imagine what would happen in eventual cyclone situations?
Jena, asking the TPCOLD to speed up the restoration, said the public does not appreciate such slow action. The chief secretary, tagging TPCODL and officer on special duty to the chief minister, requested immediate action.
Under the impact of the nor’wester on Thursday evening, trees were uprooted, branches fell off and power lines got damaged at several places resulting in power outages at important localities of the city like Sashtri Nagar, Acharya Vihar, Jaydev Vihar, Saheed Nagar and Patia among others.
With the power outage, people took to social media to express their displeasure following which the energy department tweeted eliciting a reply from the chief secretary: “CEO TPCODL has been asked to ensure restoration of power supply on war footing in the areas affected by Kalbaisakhi.”
The TPCODL on Thursday tweeted that the Bhubaneswar city load had dropped to 10 MW with the kalbaishaki at about 5 pm and gradually restored to 240 MW which is the same as Wednesday load at 9.20 pm.