Electricity supply still to fully resume in cyclone-hit Odisha areas

Bhubaneswar, June 3 (IANS) Even a month after Cyclone Fani that ravaged coastal Odisha, basic services like electricity are yet to be fully restored in several areas.

More than 1.64 lakh electricity consumers in the cyclone-hit areas are yet to see the power supply resume.

As per the records with the Special Relief Commissioner's (SRC) office, out of 25,01,131 affected consumers in the districts of Angul, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Puri, Nayagarh, Khurdha, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur, electricity has been restored to 23,36,584 consumers as on May 31.

As many as 52 per cent of the connections have been restored in Puri district, which was affected most due to the cyclone Fani that hit on May 3.

About 1.51 lakh consumers out of 2.91 lakh affected consumers have received electricity in Puri, said the SRC.

The state government has restored 96 per cent electricity in Khurdha district and 99 per cent in Cuttack.

However, the government claimed that restoration work was on war-footing and it would be completed before the annual Rath Yatra scheduled to be held in the first week of July.

The extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani made landfall near Puri on May 3 and impacted 14 districts of the state. Nearly 1.65 crore people were affected due to the disaster while 64 people lost their lives.

More than 15.5 lakh people were evacuated to safe shelters 24 hours prior to the cyclone's landfall, thus saving many precious lives.

The SRC said water supply in both urban and rural areas has already been restored.

Additionally, water is being supplied in the affected areas through water tankers and seven UV water treatment plants.

A preliminary report of damage assessment suggested that Rs 11,942.68 crore damage has occurred to the infrastructure due to the cyclone.

The SRC office said the damage assessment by the departments and the district collectors are almost over and the memorandum to the Union government will be submitted soon.