Rs 200 crore allotted to EB for repair works: Minister

“The state has demanded Rs 1,500 crore to carry out immediate relief works post Cyclone Gaja and the Union government had released Rs 200 crore initially for the relief measures,” said Thangamani, in Mallasamudhiram in Namakkal.

Thangamani, on Sunday, went to the house of Murugesan, the Tangedco worker, who died of electrocution while repairing a damaged electric post. He distributed Rs 2 lakh initially out of the total Rs 15 lakh announced by the state government for his kin and assured that the remaining Rs 13 lakh would be provided in another two or three days.

After distributing the solatium to the relatives of the electrocuted worker, Thangamani, while addressing reporters, said that electricity department is one of the worst affected departments as more than 1.13 lakh electric posts were damaged in the cyclone. Electricity supply has been restored in urban areas while in the rural areas the power supply is being restored gradually.

He also said that works are going on in full swing and workers are facing challenges from various quarters. “Most of the transformers in Delta districts are located in middle of the agricultural farms and if a transformer is damaged around 70 to 100 electric posts at a distance of 20 km should be replaced to restore electricity,” said Thangamani.

He also said that Karnataka had also sent its electricity department workers for the cyclone affected areas to carry out repair works. “More than 22,000 workers are involved in repair works and apart from the workers in Tamil Nadu, there are 800 workers from Andhra Pradesh, 500 workers from Kerala and 600 workers from Karnataka, are involved in repairworks in the cyclone affected areas,” the Minister added.