Energy and Law Minister C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar has directed officials to complete monsoon preparedness works in Chennai within a week and repair faults in underground power cables on a war footing.
The Minister inspected the Minnagam consumer service centre and substations operating on the headquarters campus on Anna Salai in Chennai.
To strengthen the city’s power infrastructure, tenders have been invited for the procurement of 1,386 transformers, 15,242 pillar boxes, 1,398 km of underground power cables, 725 circuit breakers and 285 km of high-voltage lines. The works are being carried out on a war footing, he said.
To prevent disruptions caused by waterlogging during the monsoon, work is under way to raise the height of power distribution pillar boxes. Fifty pillar boxes have been allocated to each division in Chennai, and officials have been instructed to expedite the work.
Priority is being given to identifying and repairing cable faults promptly. Efforts are being made to complete repairs within an hour, wherever possible, and restore power supply. A total of 288 engineers and 2,122 electricity workers have been deployed throughout the night for this purpose.
Special teams comprising 40 personnel, equipped with vehicles, have also been kept ready to attend to faults along 230-kV transmission lines.
To ensure the speedy restoration of power in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu districts, 82 additional power outage response centres have been established, taking the total number to 152. A total of 608 personnel have been assigned to these centres.
Besides, an additional 2,608 personnel have been deployed in the field over the past 10 days to expedite power distribution and maintenance works.
The Minister directed officials to continuously monitor all measures to ensure an uninterrupted and reliable power supply to the public.
