Govt sanctions 527 lakhs for 395 new transformers

SHILLONG, MAR 21: Power Minister James K Sangma today said the state government has sanctioned Rs 527 lakhs for procurement of as many as 395 new distribution transformers for ensuring regular power supply especially in rural areas of the state.

“Of these, 147 transformers were received while 248 are expected to receive by the end f this month,” James said while replying to a query raised by opposition Congress legislator Zenith Sangma in the Assembly on Wednesday.

He said that the main reasons that many villages are without power supply is due to the failure of the distribution transformers.

The most common causes for failure of transformers was due to lightning despite installation of lightning arresters (LA), James said.

According to him, this is because the incidence of thunder showers and lightning strikes during the pre monsoon and monsoon season is very high in Meghalaya.

“In many cases, due to high intensity of lightning, the lightning arresters cannot divert the voltage surge to earth causing the transformer to fail,” he explained while also citing that it is also due to earth fault and short circuits of distribution lines due to weather conditions like strong wind, storm, tree fall etc.

The other reasons include drawing of power beyond the contract demand and illegal tapping power, causing overloading and unbalanced loading besides pilferage of transformer oil, the minister said.

The minister however could not reply when Congress legislator of Nongthymmai Charles Pyngrope sought clarification as to the quantity of transformer oil that was stolen as according to him pilferage of oil is something very new.

He however informed that a village committee headed by the headman as chairman has been constituted to contain these illegal activities

On the delay of repairing the damaged transformers, James said that the three repairing workshops are also faced with shortage of manpower and due to this the government have engaged other workshops including in Guwahati to accelerate the repairing work.

Meanwhile, the minister also assured to look into the matter with regards to problem faced by villages under South Garo Hills District due to the damaged of as many as 60 transformers.

By Our Reporter