Damage to electric supply line triggers panic in Baramulla colony

Baramulla, Dec 16: The residents of Iqbal Colony in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district had a narrow escape after three electrical poles carrying high voltage distribution power lines fell on the boundary wall of some houses on Friday morning.

The incident created panic in the area and locals, soon after the incident, abandoned their houses and informed the PDD officials who rushed to the area to repair the poles.

   

The residents while lashing at the PDD officials said that incident occurred at around 8 am on Friday. They said fortunately electricity was off at the time of incident otherwise the incident could have caused havoc in the area.

“The high voltage overhead power lines including 11 kv and 33 kv are passing through the area. And the fall of the electric poles could have left the entire area in flames besides having caused human loss,” said Farooq Ahmad, a local resident.

The residents termed the incident as a testimony to the failure of the department which had put the lives of local residents at risk. They said such a negligence cannot be taken easy and demanded severe action against the responsible officials.

“It is responsibility of the PDD department to look after their infrastructure so that timely action is taken in case there is some need of repair,” said Muhammad Shafi, a local resident. “The department needs to relocate these electric poles as they can cause massive damage in the residential area as high voltage overhead transmission lines are posing massive threat to people,” added Muhammad Shafi.

Meanwhile, Assistant Executive Engineer STD, RP Singh, said that they had earlier started repair of the electric poles, however, the locals objected and demanded relocation.

“These electric poles were installed two decades back. Though we tried to repair some of the poles here but faced resistance from the locals who were demanding relocation,” said AEE Power development department Baramulla.

“Now we have erected these electric poles and carried out necessary maintenance,” he added.

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