Nature’s outburst & snags hit Nagpur

Surprisingly, MSEB officials had different versions to tell. When contacted, officials at the Central Control Room said that the Pardi feeder line and sub-station had developed some fault, which became the major cause for disruption of power supply to the city. This sub-station receives electricity feeders from the Khaperkheda Power Station, which in turn is supplied to the city.

On the other hand, the Executive Engineer, Nagpur Urban, P S Hardas, claimed that the 132 KV feeder lines from these thermal power stations between Ambazari and Mankapur, and Kanhan and Pardi had tripped due to some fault, which caused disruption of power supply to the city. He however could not elaborate on the cause of the tripping.

Engineers and MSEB officials suspect that the heavy rains and lightning might have caused tripping of the feeder lines. Already hit by the unseasonal heavy rains that lashed the city for more than an hour, the power failure badly affected hospitals, which remained without power supply causing enormous problems. Cinema houses had to cancel shows, while work at the newspaper offices came to a standstill.

The telephones of the various sub-stations remained engaged for hours as curious consumers rang up to ask what the problem was. The MSEB staff had a harrowing time convincing people that the fault was not limited to their particular sub-station but the entire city was affected due to the power failure. MSEB officials too could not establish contact with the Load Despatch Centre (LDC) on Amravati road since telephones lines to the LDC were out of order.

In Buldana, the hailstorm that lasted for about 10 min on last Sunday, causing heavy damage to public property. However, Kharif crops which were on the verge of wilting, were benefitted because of the heavy rains. About 50 trees were uprooted and about 200 were damaged because of high velocity winds. Though no loss of life was reported, the high-velocity winds completely destroyed the slums, with tin roofs of hundreds of huts being blown away by the winds.Tremors too register their presence

Certain parts of Nagpur city experienced mild tremors on Wednesday night following a mild earthquake recorded by the local seismological observatory. According to the observatory, a mild tremor of the magnitude of 2.0 on the Richter scale was recorded at the seismological observatory at 23:23 hours. The epicentre of this earthquake has been roughly fixed by the local observatory at 38 kms away from the city.

However, regional seismological observatories at Akola, Bilaspur and Bhopal could not record the development due to the weak nature of the tremors and hence the exact location of the epicentre could not be located.