NEW DELHI : The Centre has taken a series of steps for restoration of power supply and improving availability of petrol, diesel and cooking gas in the floods hit areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
While the Ministry of Power has taken a slew of measures to restore the heavily damaged power transmission lines and the distribution system, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has been working to ensure availability of essential petroleum products in the aftermath of floods in the state, an official spokesperson said here today.
The availability of fuel–petrol, diesel and LPG, is normal in Jammu division, the spokesperson claimed. The situation in Srinagar division is challenging and efforts are being made to ensure that adequate fuel is made available in the division.
In order to improve supply of petroleum products in Srinagar, Oil Marketing Companies have made available 33,296 LPG cylinders, 1,807 KL of petrol and 3,783 KL of diesel in Srinagar. In addition to LPG cylinders, 1,661KL Petrol and 3,292 KL of Diesel are in transit to Srinagar via Jammu Srinagar Highway NH-1A, via the alternative Kishtwar-Sinthan Top route and via the Leh-Srinagar route.
There are 201 retail outlets in Srinagar Division, out of which 171 Retail Outlets are functional. The Private LPG Bottling Plant at Srinagar is operational. The LPG plant of HPCL in Srinagar is inundated with water. Hence, additional LPG cylinders are being bottled at the Bottling Plants of IOCL and HPCL in Jammu.
Arrangements for additional bulk LPG supply to feed these Bottling Plants at Jammu and for trucks to transport cylinders from Jammu to Srinagar have been made. Two 2,400 GPM John Deere pumps sent by ONGC are running efficiently in two shifts in Rajbagh area and four pumps (2 of capacity 1,800 LPM and another two of capacity 275 LPM) sent from ONGC, Dehradun are running round the clock at Badami Bagh area in Srinagar.
On power supply front, 14 of the 17 damaged 33/11-KV Sub Stations of Jammu region have been restored which are feeding important areas, including Beli Gulaba, Malhouri, Mandi, MES and Rajouri.
Efforts are on to restore the remaining three at the earliest, the spokesperson said.
In Srinagar area, 132 KV Sub Station at Bemina, which is very vital for power supply to the valley, was restored two days ago. Of the 36 33/11 KV Sub Stations which were damaged due to the floods, many have been restored.
These distribution sub stations feed–Peerbagh, Silk Factory, Badami Bagh and Karan Nagar.
In the valley, power demand up to 704 MV has been restored, almost 88 per cent of the normal load. In order to augment efforts for faster restoration of power, states–Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka,and many private agencies responded to the call by Power Secretary and offered their help by supplying power distribution materials. Disruption of electricity was severe in most of the areas of the state, which witnessed disastrous floods in its history of last six decades.
There was a huge damage of high tension, low tension lines, transformers and Sub Stations which were either submerged or washed away.
MoS Power Piyush Goyal has asked senior officers of the power sector CPSUs to rush to the state immediately and assess the situation.
The Ministry also authorised the Power Grid, its nodal agency to assist Jammu and Kashmir Power Department(JKPDD) in restoration of transmission lines and distribution system. Emergency Restoration System(ERS) has also been deployed by Power Grid for four 132 KV lines in Jammu region and for one 132 KV line in Srinagar region.
For distribution lines and substations, a team of Power Grid along with JKPDD has started working simultaneously. Control rooms were opened at Ministry of Power, Delhi and sub-control rooms at Power Grid offices at Gurgaon, Jammu and Wagoora. Subsequently, teams were mobilised to identify power disrupted areas with priorities for faster restoration of damaged power lines.
The Minister also gave directions to dispatch 10,000 solar lamps with chargers, immediately for distribution in flood affected areas.
Coal India Limited has also been asked to dispatch heavy duty de-watering pumps to the affected areas. (AGENCIES)
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