20K residents in Lucknow's Gomtinagar sweat it out due to power cut after cable fire

LUCKNOW: A damaged power cable after a fire in a trench near BBD Academy plunged large parts of Gomtinagar and Gomtinagar Extension into darkness on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday., affecting more than 20,000 residents
The damage in an 11KV cable was detected by a line patrolling party around 12.45am and it took a mammoth manual effort to repair it.It was only by 12 noon on Thursday that Lesa could fully restore the power supply in the area.
According to an official statement, around 12:33am on Thursday, the 11 KV Dayal feeder of 33/11 KV Vipin Khand substation tripped with the 33 KV due to earthing. Four minutes later when 33 the KV supply was restored with 11 KV breaker being turned on at the substation one by one, the 11 KV Shodh feeder tripped once again at 12:47am along with the 33KV supply. Around the same time, a line patrolling party detected smoke emitting from the cable trench built on the side of the main road near BBD Academy in Gomtinagar. "The staff immediately alerted the substation to snap the power supply and informed the fire brigade. The patrolling party attempted to extinguish fire but in vain. The fire brigade reached the spot around 1:20am and took 40 minutes to douse the fire," said the discom official. During assessment it was found that out of 11 power cables of 11kV, almost all were damaged upto 20 metres length. "The concrete covers of the cable trench were very heavy and could not be removed manually, following which the loader was roped in to execute the task. Gusty wind and drizzle hampered the work, which further delayed the restoration operation till 3:30am," said a Lesa official. The work on the damaged 11 kV power cable was started around 4am. By 6:30am, various teams managed to connect ends of damaged cables and gradually till after every test and check of repaired joints, the power restoration in several areas of Gomtinagar was started one by one. Since 11 kV Dayal feeder faulty cables were still being removed till Thursday morning, power consumers were supplied electricity from 11 kV Vikas feeder under alternative arrangements.
"By 12 noon, power supply was restored in entire Gomtinagar," said the official.