The disaster left 2.56 million homes statewide without electricity.
“We
were lucky that our home was not damaged,” said Cherian, who moved
back to Kerala in 2014 from Kuwait where he had worked for 20 years.
But
the flood waters had left Chengannur without electricity. It was the
worst-affected division in the state with six of seven sections
flooded. By August 16, 2018, its sub-station--an electricity
distribution point--had been switched off.
The
Zachariahs were struggling to tend to the needs of the dozens of
volunteers who slept over at their home. “Not having power was the
biggest problem, especially for cooking and the use of toilets,”
said Neelina.
The
disaster left 2.56 million homes statewide without electricity. How
the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) restored power in these
homes under a fortnight by mobilising and deploying every human
resource at hand, including retired KSEB staff, engineering students
and private electricians, doing away with red tape and questions of
hierarchy and communication could be a model for every
disaster-stricken state grappling with a similar problem.
The
KSEB called its plan Mission Reconnect.
Update
on relief efforts: CM Pinarayi
Vijayan reviewed the relief & rehabilitation efforts. The
population of camps have come down to 3,42,699 people in 1093 camps.
Electricity has been restored for 25.04 lakh connections of the 25.6
lakh disrupted.
#KeralaFloodRelief
—
CMO Kerala
(@CMOKerala) August 27, 2018
“The
situation was unprecedented,” NS Pillai, chairman and managing
director (CMD) of KSEB, told IndiaSpend. “We had to ensure that
requests for materials and personnel on ground were provided without
the usual delays of following government procedure.”
In
the first part of this series on how Kerala is rebuilding itself
post-flood, we looked at the role of a poor women’s collective. In
this second part, we tell you how KSEB, which suffered a loss of
nearly Rs 850 crore during the floods, dealt with the crisis. The
flood waters damaged nearly 16,158 distribution transformers, 50
sub-stations, 15 large and small hydel stations, according to the
KSEB data we accessed.
IndiaSpend
traversed four districts--Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam, and
Thiruvananthapuram--to understand how the KSEB pulled off its
mission.
Swimming,
wading through mud, riding a boat: How wiremen reached work
The
KSEB set up a state-level task force (SLTF) at its headquarters in
Thiruvananthapuram consisting of a 24x7 control room. “Our primary
role was to ensure communication to and from district level officials
was seamless,” said Suresh Kumar C, deputy chief engineer leading
the SLTF.... Read
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