MARGAO: Salcete will have to bear greater burden of power outages this monsoon season as the electricity department’s mobile hydraulic vans have broken down. During the recent outage in Colva, residents were shocked to learn the electricians needed time to respond as the department lacked hydraulic vans.
“South Goa seems to have only one van, which is out of order since May. The department is floating tenders for repairing the crane now, so you can imagine when it will get repaired,” said a Colva local.
Residents criticized the electricity department’s casual attitude and said they were told that faulty streetlights could only be replaced after the tendering process was completed. They complained that the malfunctioning streetlights, road-widening works and JCB machines with no indicators were a threat to commuters at night.
Sam Fernandes claimed the non functioning streetlight were seen across Salcete. He said, “The department is making this excuse that they are handicapped. It’s going to start raining heavily, and then what will they do? Secondly, why is there no planning for maintenance and service before the monsoon?”
Similar complaints were filed in Aquem. Activist Cedric da Costa said he informed the electricity department about corroded electricity poles in his area and also a few that were cut and left in the open. He requested the department to either cover or remove the poles as school children frequented the area.
Aquem’s Assistant Executive Engineer Deepak Naik replied that the corroded poles had been taken down and an estimate for their replacement was already submitted.
Fatorda’s Assistant Engineer Rajendra Sawant stated that the hydraulic vans, which are currently in a Churchorem garage, would be available within a month. He added, “We have another van, but that also broke down. We use an ordinary ladder for emergencies. The work at Housing Board Colony, Fatorda is being done with the normal ladder.”
Deepak Naik, who is in-charge of 10 wards in Margao, doesn’t have a mobile hydraulic van of his own. He said a proposal had been put before the Margao MLA, who forwarded the same to Power Minister Milind Naik. He is hopeful that the matter will be resolved soon.
Naik informed that since several sub-divisions in South Goa did not have the equipment, they sought help from their Fatorda counterpart. With Fatorda’s vans also out of order, he had to use a regular ladder – just like Fatorda.
He pointed out that the work of the crane-fitted vans had reduced considerably as Margao had an underground electricity cabling network and the pole-mounted transformers were replaced with plinth-based transformers.
Naik also claimed private cranes charged around Rs 5,000 per day and payments had to be made instantly by cash. It was a problem as the electricity dept followed a procedure to make payments.
