North Goa reels under frequent power failuresJoaquim Fernandes <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/author-Joaquim-Fernandes.cms>,TNN | Jun 4, 2014, 02.22 AM IST
PANAJI: While North Goa reels under frequent power failures robbing citizens of their sleep and peace of mind, the power department has no immediate solution except for the usual spiel about cyclonic winds and falling trees falling on power lines. While power department officials described the power outages as "interruptions", power minister Milind Naik also refused to believe that power failures in North Goa were frequent. He described the power failures as "problems in patches". Naik said that the only way to reduce power failures was to have underground cabling of the 33KV and 11KV lines all over Goa. This will eliminate the "interruptions" by 90%, Naik said, adding that he has verbally requested chief minister Manohar Parrikar for funds for the project. Naik also said that if the underground cabling is laid in the usual manner of digging the ground, putting in the cables and putting back the soil over the cables, the project would cost around Rs 12,000 crore. But if the underground cabling were to be done in "concrete trenches", the cost would be around Rs 25,000 crore. "Chief minister has requested me to submit a proposal and assured me to get central funds for the project," Naik said. He also said that no time-frame can be fixed. The Calangute-Candolim coastal belt probably is the worst hit. Calangute MLA Michael Lobo said, "There are 10 to 12 power cuts in a day. Tourists sitting in restaurants, pubs, shacks and other small establishments that do not have generators, are greatly disturbed by these power failures. Frequent power failures are bad for the tourism industry in Goa." Lobo said that the Candolim electricity sub-station is in shambles and demanded that the government expedite his proposals to set up a separate sub-station at Calangute. He also demanded that the government complete underground cabling of the low tension lines which supply power to individual consumers' homes. Lobo said that funds would not be a problem due to the new BJP government at the centre. Power department public relations officer T A Verghese said that the coastal belt suffers from power outages because of overloading. The Saligao and Candolim sub-station cannot cope with the requirement of power in the coastal belt. Officials said there is a Rs 12-crore proposal pending that will include fitting the two sub-stations with new 10 MVA transformers. Two other pending estimates are for underground cabling from Tivim sub-station to Candolim, Nagao and Saligao sub-stations. The load in the coastal belt is increasing by 25% every year due to hotels, guesthouses and even residential houses, most of which are now fitted with airconditioners. For other areas, Verghese insists that it is falling trees (often due to high winds) that cause the disruptions. Verghese showed photographs of how a massive tree fell on the 33KV double line at Painwaddo at Tivim on Monday night affecting power supply to places like Aldona, Porvorim and Calangute. In Pernem, the Dhargal feeder supplies power up to Ibrampur through an overhead line that traverses about 65km through highly wooded terrain. Fortunately, the grand scheme of laying underground cables all over Goa is already underway. Panaji and Margao have total underground cables. In Calangute, only the 11KV line is underground and the 33KV line is still overhead. Presently, work is underway to put the 33KV lines from Margao to Canacona and Vasco underground, Verghese said. *TIMES VIEW* The oft-repeated excuse of falling trees disrupting electricity supply cannot hold good for areas that have underground cabling. Electricity to Panaji is supplied through underground cables, but the state capital faced frequent power disruptions on Monday night and Tuesday all day. It is a fact that the power supply service has deteriorated tremendously in the last two years. The government must concentrate on providing uninterrupted power to the entire state. Merely propping up the argument that underground cabling will take care of the disruptions but doing nothing to put in place the solution can be termed as incompetence. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Goa/North-Goa-reels-under-frequent-power-failures/articleshow/36016408.cms -- -- Saligao-Net is at http://groups.google.com/group/saligao-net To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe email [email protected] --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Saligao-Net" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
