The storm that hit the city on Thursday morning left behind a trail of destruction and the most hit was the power utility. The high speed wind accompanying by the rains snapped overhead wires at various places resulting in tripping of power across various residential localities. Although as a precautionary measure the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) had switched off the supply, still at some places, the strong wind caused damage. Till 9.30 am, it was perfect normal summer scorch though the weathermen had given orange alert. And by 10 am the skies turned overcast, so much so that visibility dropped to near zero and darkness gripped the city. Suddenly heavy winds started blowing and the speed was around 50 to 60 km/hr and it ripped apart the posters on the hoarding across the city and adjoining rural areas.

 

However the uprooting of trees caused damages to 11 KV lines of MSEDCL at various places. During the two hours of fierce storm, the powermen were flooded with calls of falling of trees and branches on the powerlines. At few other places due to lighting, the magnetic field damaged the insulators that led to tripping. To make matter more complicated, the 132 KV Hingna sub-station tripped leading to power failure in West and South West Nagpur where 33 KV sub-stations at Jaitala, Trimurti Nagar, VNIT, IT Park and Amravati Road. The MSEDCL teams were well prepared for the adverse weather situation and promptly back feeded these sub-stations from Deekshabhoomi and Sitabudli units and brought them back into system.

 

Similarly, 11 KV overhead wires at Shrikrishna Nagar, Mahalgaon, Hudkeshwar, Tajbagh, route also suffered damaged after tree branches snapped and fell on them. Also a tree got uprooted at Jai Hind Nagar, Manish Nagar, Janki Nagar, Subhedar Layout, Old Mangalwari, Tajbagh, Mangaldeep, Shatabdi Nagar. As soon as rains paused, the MSEDCL teams fanned out and by 2 pm, all the damaged lines were rejoined and power was restored in city. Thereafter, the 33 KV sub-stations that had tripped were one by one brought back into the system. Also the transformers that suffered damages were also repaired and fuse calls and individual power failure complaints were taken-up for rectification. Chief Engineer Dilip Dodke, Superintending Engineer (City) Amit Paranjape and SE (Rural) Rajesh Naik were constantly keeping in touch with field teams and supervised the restoration work.