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Around 1,100 villages and dozens of towns in Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat were without power on Friday morning as cyclone Biparjoy uprooted electricity poles, snapped power conductors and grounded power transformers while making landfall on Jakhau port late on Thursday night.
The cyclone continued to ravage the twin regions on Friday morning bringing gusty winds and downpours.
As of 8 am, there was a blackout in 1,092 villages in the two regions, said state-owned Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Limited (PGVCL) that distributes power in Saurashtra and Kutch regions.
The company said in a statement that the power supply to seven towns of coastal Jamnagar and Devbhumi Dwarka districts also remained disrupted. Dwarka and Okha towns of Devbhumi Dwarka district and Porbandar town were facing power outages. In Kutch, power lines failed in Bhuj, the district headquarters, as well as in coastal Gandhidham and Mandvi towns and in Bhachau, Anjar, and Nakhatrana.
At least 526 villages in Jamnagar and Devbhumi Dwarka – the districts that are separated from Kutch district by the Gulf of Kutch – face power outages, besides 406 villages in Kutch and 109 in Porbandar.
Save Rajkot district, 11 districts were affected by the power disruptions. They were coastal districts such as Morbi, Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar, and Kutch and interior districts like Botad, and Surendranagar.
PGVCL said that the cyclone ripped out 4,038 electricity poles, leading to power failures in 2,547 power feeders, including 2102 rural feeders, 76 urban feeders, 45 industrial feeders and 324 agricultural feeders. As many as 186 power transformers have been damaged, said a statement by the company.
A PGVCL officer said that the figures of damage to the power infrastructure are primary only. “These figures of damage to our power distribution infrastructure are based on primary reports received from the field. We apprehend the real extent of damage is much larger but it will be known only once our teams are able to access our entire network and assess the situation,” said the officer.
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Kutch is still under the effect of Biparjoy, 12 hours after the severe cyclonic storm made landfall at Jakhau port
( Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)
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“Trees have fallen and power has been cut off as a precautionary measure,” Kutch district collector Amit Arora said.
(Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)
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Naliya and Jakhau in Abdasa and Dayapar in Lakhpat are the worst affected areas (Express Photo by Nirmal harindran)
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Officials said a shepherd and his son were killed after being swept away in a flooded stream near Bhavnagar city. Around 20 of their sheep were also killed in the incident.
(Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)
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A water body was flooded in Kutch due to extremely heavy rainfall
(Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)
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An NDRF team was seen clearing the uprooted trees (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)
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Kutch received 23 mm of rainfall and Amreli received another 14 mm of rainfall. (Express Photo by Bhupendra Rana)
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Trees had fallen, electricity poles got uprooted, blocking roads and causing power outages. (Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)
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NDRF team is constantly working on the rescue opeations.
( Express photo by Bhupendra Rana)
The highest number of poles (1521) was damaged in Jamnagar and Devbhumi Dwarka districts, followed by Junagadh (909), Porbandar (621) and Amreli (274). In Kutch, 187 poles were reported damaged.
Meanwhile, the officer added that electricity cuts were imposed in many regions following government orders. “We received orders from district collectors to shut down power lines as a precautionary measure to prevent accidents as the cyclone hit the coast and hence blackouts in some areas,” the officer said.
Gujarat Health Minister Rushikesh Patel who has been camping in Bhuj Wednesday said that PGVCL has reserved 35 electricity poles to replace damaged ones and had added that power generator sets had been installed at hospitals and temporary cyclone shelters for emergency purposes.
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