Canada-made towers help quickly restore power in Kashmir

Canada-made towers help quickly restore power in Kashmir

Kulgam, where 5 towers were damaged by snowfall, has electricity again within a week

Srinagar: Just four days after massive snowfall damaged five transmission towers in Kulgam district, across a span of 12 km, the district is once again lit up with electricity, work that could have otherwise taken up to four months for completion.
This was possible due to the Emergency Restoration System (ERS), a specialised temporary tower mechanism imported from Canada, used for quickly setting up transmission lines for restoration of electricity. It is for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir that a 120-feet-high ERS has been used for temporary restoration.
Wasim Ahmad, one of the engineers who worked for the restoration, told Kashmir Reader that three towers were used for restoring power to affected households, while another three would be set up for restoration of the Chadoora grid, which work will also be completed in one or two days.
“This system was set up as a temporary arrangement. Parallel to it, the actual towers would be restored, which will take at least four months. When that would be complete, the system would be back in place for use,” he said.
Earlier when the transmission system used to get damaged, the Power department would have to get new towers, for which the department had to pay hefty sums. This also took a lot of time But then in 2018, the department procured about ten such towers from a Canadian company at the cost of Rs 9.5 cr. This saved money, restored the power in less time, and the department became self-reliant.
The 132 kV Mirbazar-Kulgam Transmission Line had suffered outage due to heavy and rapid snowfall during the intervening night of 22nd and 23rd of February. The heavy snowfall resulted in damage to five towers of the transmission line and consequently power supply to Kulgam and adjoining areas was cut off.
The ERS uses modular aluminum towers, which are handy for quickly restoring power on damaged transmission lines (during heavy snowfall, landslides, wind storms, floods, etc) as well as to facilitate scheduled maintenance work with minimal power interruption.
As per Wasim Ahmad, work on the Chadoora grid is on, but about 20,000 households are being supplied power through an alternative route. They will be getting 12-14 hours of electricity daily, but when the system would be back in place, the supply would get back to routine of 18 hours, he said.

 

 

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