Work for underground power cables begins in capital city

Bhubaneswar: In order to provide uninterrupted power to the residents of the capital city, the work for laying underground power cables began on Sunday.

Inaugurating the project, Energy minister Pranab Prakash Das said the first phase of the project would be completed within 18 months.

“This is five-year project with an investment of Rs 1500 crore of which Rs 350 crore would be spent in the first phase,” he added.

Stating that the underground power cabling work has started in Paradip, the Bada Danda (Grand Road) in Puri and the Lingaraj Temple Ratha Road in Bhubaneswar, the minister said a decision has been taken to take up this work in Cuttack and Rourkela cities.

The advantage of underground power cabling is that the people would avail uninterrupted power even during natural disasters like cyclone and storms. “Moreover, the transmission loss would be brought down to about five percent,” he pointed out.

Chairperson of OPTCL, Hemant Sharma said the overhead 33 KV and 11 KV power lines would be laid underground in 350 km area in the capital city.

“About 150 new transformers would be set up while power supply to the houses of the consumers would be made on smart grid mode through SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) technology,” he added.