Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 23: The power supply in the Kashmir valley, which came down considerably following heavy snowfall on January 18 and 19, was improved by 250 Mega Watts this afternoon after the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) team rectified the snag in one of the circuits of the Kishenpur-Wagoora transmission line by fighting the extreme hostile weather conditions on the top of Jawahar Tunnel in snow laden Pir Panjal mountains.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that due to accumulation of snow up to 9 feet following fresh unusually heavy snowfall in Pir Panjal range of mountains on January 18 and 19, 2013, the 400 KV Wagoora-Kishenpur transmission line’s one circuit started giving frequent trouble from January 20, 2013.
Despite various attempts by the PGCIL, the line could not hold permanently and a snag developed in one of the circuits resulting into power availability in the Valley coming down by around 250 Mega Watts.
“Though one circuit was operational and no major disruption on account of transmission of power to Kashmir valley took place, the PGCIL, which is responsible for the maintenance of this transmission line, decided to immediately rectify the fault as early as possible in line with its commitment to ensure minimum outage of the circuit”, sources said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the two circuits of Kishenpur-Wagoora transmission line are the lifeline of electricity supply in the Kashmir valley especially during the winters when the local power generation comes down considerably because of less discharge in the rivers.
On January 21, PGCIL approached State administration for assistance in providing helicopter for aerial survey of the transmission line. On the same day the engineers of PGCIL completed the aerial survey and located the fault.
“Since the area had become inaccessible for the Engineers and Technicians of PGCIL to reach the site for carrying out rectification work, PGCIL sought the help of Indian Air Force for ferrying manpower and equipment to the site located just on the top of Jawahar Tunnel in the Pir Panjal range of mountains”, sources said.
With the help of Air Force chopper, team of highly experienced engineers and technicians was dropped at the desired location this morning and after fighting the extreme hostile weather conditions and more than eight feet accumulated snow for several hours, the engineers and technicians of PGCIL succeeded in rectifying the fault on the line at the height of more than 50 meter from the snow surface, sources said.
“The circuit was charged at around 1 pm today and with the rectification of snag the power supply to the Kashmir valley has increased by 250 Mega Watts”, they said, adding “the power supply to Kashmir valley from Kishenpur-Wagoora transmission line has been increased to 500 Mega Watts as was before the snowfall of January 18, 2013”.
The whole operation was monitored at the level of J P Singh, Executive Director, PGCIL Northern Region-I while as General Manager (O&M) K R Suri kept the close look at the developments and commanded the restoration work.
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