Dimapur: Saturday night’s thundershower ripple effect

Lightning storm over Chumoükedima on a cloudy September 21 night. A bout of thundershower on Saturday in and around Dimapur set off a ripple effect disrupting power supply for over 15 hours to several localities. (Morung Photo)

Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 22

A brief bout of thundershower on the night September 21 in Dimapur set off a ripple effect disrupting power supply for over 15 hours to several localities. Lightning reportedly damaged a power utility point originating from Metha Sub-station affecting normal supply to colonies in and around the Clock Tower area and Tajen Ao Road (formerly Circular Road). 

The fault was attributed to a “pin insulator” going kaput at a point near the Clock Tower during the brief thundershower. According to a Power department official, it had a cascading effect in the supply chain extending restoration works. 

The official said that the restoration work, which started around 11:00pm continued well into the evening on Sunday as workers detected other faults as one got restored. “Faults were detected in as many as 4-5 locations near the Clock Tower and Tajen Ao Road,” the official said. 

A display banner blown off from a billboard near the Clock Tower during Sunday’s downpour was caught in an entanglement with power lines further adding to the trouble and delaying repairs. The official said that one line had to be shut down to repair another. 

Supply was restored line-wise while full restoration to all the affected colonies could be done only around 5:30 pm, the official added. 

The feeder (power line) from Metha Sub-station supplying the Clock Tower area and surrounding colonies, as per the Power department, is among the most over-loaded. A fault in the line and other equipments linked to it often results in major outages in a densely populated segment of the city. 

Power utilities going off at the slightest shift in weather has been the norm here. This tradition would hopefully change for the better as an ongoing project to replace rotting poles and aging 11kv lines with new and stronger wires in Dimapur under the Central government’s Integrated Power Development Scheme has been set on course sometime in September-October 2018. 

However, replacing the aging utilities has not seen significant progress with the works continuing in a leisurely pace. As per the department, this project was outsourced to private firms.