NIT works overtime to supply electric boards to Kerala

In the first phase of rehabilitation, one of the major problems identified was the difficulties in power supply restoration. Hundreds of houses that were completely inundated had to be rewired on a war-footing. The faculty and the students of NIT, with support from the alumni, were working overtime to deliver the requisitioned numbers in time.  

The IEEE Kerala Section launched a massive drive for electricity reconnection under the Jala Jyothi Programme to restore power using temporary distribution boards.  The project includes design, mass production and installation of a low-cost electric distribution boards as a minimum power outlet. 

This would help the affected, still in relief camps, to return to their houses and undertake cleaning and sanitisation. The IEEE Kerala section’s indigenous design of temporary distribution boards was approved by the Kerala Electricity Board and it was decided to distribute 500 such boards to the worst-affected.

NIT director Dr. Mini Shaji Thomas said that a joint team of faculty, staff, students and alumni had been set up to accomplish the task of fabrication based on the approved design.  

According to the NIT director, Jayaram Sadasivam, an alumnus, allowed the team to use his company to make the boards.  The students of NIT Tiruchy contributed over Rs 5 lakh towards this cause. The Alumni Association of NIT has also promised an additional Rs 2 lakh for the fabrication of the boards. 

The fabrication and the assembling of the 500 boards has nearly been completed and would be dispatched soon to  Kerala.