Amid lockdown announced by the government to control the spread of COVD-19, they work round the clock to ensure uninterrupted power supply. Yes. Engineers, technicians, linemen and other staff from Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company (GESCOM) in Yadgir have been working round the clock to ensure electricity supply to urban and rural areas after several hundred electricity poles were uprooted and transformers were burnt due to recent spell of pre-monsoon rain.
By taking precautions, including maintaining social distancing during ground-level work, wiremen, linemen and other technicians have been erecting new electricity poles and also replacing defunct transformers.
“As many as 200 electricity poles were uprooted and 40 transformers burnt in rain-related incidents. We have been under tremendous pressure to restore them within a stipulated period. Due to the lockdown, people in the urban and rural areas are staying indoors and their dependence on electricity has gone up when compared to other days as now they are continuously watching television, using household electrical equipment and computers and laptops for their work. Therefore, a GESCOM team estimated the damages quickly and started restoration work immediately,” D. Raghavendra, Executive Engineer, GESCOM, said.
It was a time-consuming work for the staff and linemen to find out cable-cutting points and remove trees fallen on them. This forced senior officials to go to the trouble spots to give necessary directions to their staff.
“As per the guidelines, all preventive measures have been initiated. The staff were provided hand gloves, sanitisers and face masks. They were also asked to ensure social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during their work,” R. Raghapriya, Managing Director of GESCOM, Kalaburagi Division, said.
