Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 4: Where there is a will there is a way! This adage has once again been proved true by the engineers of the Powergrid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) as they braved unprecedented snow and high velocity icy winds atop the Jawahar Tunnel situated at a height of 2194 meter (7198 feet) above the sea level in Pir Panjal range of mountains in order to lighten the Kashmir valley by rectifying the snag in the lone transmission line connecting the region with rest of the country via Northern Grid.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that continuous rain and snowfall on the intervening night of December 31, 2013 and January 1, 2014, which threw normal life out of gear across the State, had its impact on 400 KV double circuit Kishenpur-Wagoora Transmission line of the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited.
The vital transmission line could not withstand the unprecedented snowfall as a result of which jumpers on one of its circuits developed snag at around 2.27 am yesterday thereby curtailing the power supply to the Kashmir valley by around 500 Mega Watts, sources said.
In the wee hours of today, the authorities of the PGCIL, which is responsible for the maintenance of the Kishenpur-Wagoora transmission line, approached the State Government and the Indian Air Force with the request to help in ferrying the engineers to the site of the damage atop the Jawahar Tunnel.
Since entire Kashmir valley had plunged into darkness particularly during the extreme weather conditions, the IAF accepted the request of the PGCIL and State Government. Accordingly, a six-member team of the PGCIL, which had reached Batote, was airlifted and dropped at the nearest possible location in the gigantic mountainous peaks of Pir Panjal this morning.
Officers from the Air Force particularly Group Captain Ghera and Wing Commander Batra played important role in this operation by ferrying the engineers of PGCIL despite hostile weather conditions prevailing in the area, sources informed.
The PGCIL engineers braved unprecedented snow and high velocity winds atop the Jawahar Tunnel for several hours and finally succeeded in restoring the snag at around 1 pm. Thereafter the transmission line was charged at 13.27 hours and around 500 Mega Watts of electricity was made available to the Kashmir valley, sources said, adding the daunting and life threatening task was executed by PGCIL personnel namely Devinder Kumar, Rajesh Kumar, Kansara Singh, Narinder Kumar, Chankar Singh and Ashwani Kumar.
“Not only staying for several hours in the unprecedented snow but braving very high velocity icy winds while rectifying the snag atop the towers is really a herculean task, which has been successfully completed by the PGCIL engineers”, sources said while disclosing that entire operation, which resulted into restoration of power supply to Valley within 11 hours of its snapping, was closely monitored at the highest level in PGCIL with its General Manager (O&M) K R Suri keeping the close look at the developments and commanding the restoration work.
Arshad Khan, Chief Manager (Batote), S M Dar, Chief Manager (Wagoora) and Mohd Farooq, Manager (OS) organized their teams at Batote, Wagoora and Jammu respectively before being dropped at the peaks of the Pir Panjal.
The Kishenpur-Wagoora transmission line has a total length of 185 kilometers and is passing through tough terrains. However, the alignment of the line through the Pir Panjal range, which intersects over the Jawahar Tunnel is typically critical. Though a number of steps have been taken by the PGCIL for structural stability of the line yet the problem of damage to the line during the winter months still exists particularly during snow and periods after snow.
“The tripping of the line occur mostly in the left circuit of the line most often in the locations of L-14 and L-15”, sources said, adding “the main cause of the tripping is ice-loadings, a phenomenon in which ice gets accumulated over the conductor as the wind blows against the conductor. The bulk of ice loading is so much that the conductor gets buried within the ice accumulated over there”.
Though earth cutting works were carried out in the area yet the same proved to be insufficient to address the problem and the viable solution still remained a target, sources said, adding “a location where the fault is a major nuisance is guarded by ridges with a Valley in between. The wind blows from within the Valley towards the conductor and results in heavy ice loadings in the vicinity”.
Keeping this in view, baffle walls were erected in the area and the complete design and drawings were taken from SASE group as the same were tested in the harsh conditions of the area. However, damages to the line still take place.
Meanwhile, J P Singh, Executive Director PGCIL Northern Region-II has lauded the team for extraordinary efforts in restoring the transmission line.
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