Port Blair, May 4: It has been noticed that since the last few months that various agencies/contractors are executing excavation work alongside the road without giving any intimation to the Electricity Department. During such excavation work which involves the drilling and digging activity, the high tension power cable of 33 KV and 11 KV running along the roadside are being damaged resulting in long hours power interruption, which causes huge unrest amongst the public as the repair work of damaged cables takes on an average of 10 to 12 hours and the time increases further in case of multiple damage of the cables.

On 19.04.2023, contractor of Smart City Project while drilling for laying CCTv cable had damaged 1No. 33KV UG Cable & 1No. 11KV UG Cable at foreshore road, resulting in power interruption. Again on 03.05.2023, the PBMC contractor while excavating on the road side at Doodhline had punctured 11KV-Nayagaon feeder cable at two (02) places which resulted in power interruption in that area for long duration of about 10 hours.

The Electricity Department is already overburdened with power shortage and is carrying out load shedding to manage the demand and supply gap. The long duration of power interruption due to such cable faults further creates unrest among the public.

The A&N Administration has viewed this issue very seriously and has directed the department to take strict action against such erring contractors/ agencies who are causing damage to the public property.

All agencies/contractor before carrying out such excavation work shall intimate the Junior Engineer/Site Office Staff of the area well in-advance to avoid such incident of power cable damage in future.