Darjeeling, June 19: Large parts of the Darjeeling hills have been without power since Friday’s rain which has been followed by heavier spells in the next two days, hampering the repair of power lines snapped because of strong winds and uprooted trees.
Kurseong has been in darkness for the past three days except for a one-hour relief today, while most parts of Darjeeling were without electricity for more than 15 hours.
A landslide at Birik on NH31A around 8.30pm today cut off Sikkim’s only road link once more. The road had shut down on Friday night after boulders came tumbling down at the same spot, 40km from Rangpo in Kalimpong subdivision. It had reopened around noon yesterday.
Dipen Khawash, assistant engineer of the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Corporation Limited that supplies power to the Darjeeling hills, said: “There have been power breakdowns at more than 20 points across the Kurseong subdivision. The breakdowns have occurred mostly on the outskirts of Kurseong town.
“The electricity department has formed teams that are fanning across the hills to carry on repair. Huge trees have fallen on power lines in Sepoydhura and Makaibari,” said Khawash.
He said though the Kurseong teams had been working till 9pm, repair was being hampered because of incessant rain. “Restoration work would largely depend on the weather. There are problems on seven points in the main line (33KV),” said Khawash. Electricity
In Darjeeling, strong winds along with torrential rain yesterday evening disrupted life. Officials of the electricity department in Darjeeling said there had been disruptions in many areas of the Happy Valley tea estate and Patlabas. A huge tree also fell on an electricity line near the Darjeeling Motor Stand area in the heart of the town. Employees were trying to saw the tree throughout the day.
Electricity department sources said power was restored in the upper parts of Darjeeling town around 3pm. In the next three hours power came back in other parts of the town, including Chowrasta and Chowk Bajaar, in a phased manner.
In Kalimpong town, power was disrupted from around 10.30am this morning. Despite the rains no major landslides were reported from across the hills. “There have been a number of small landslips in various places but no casualties have been reported till now,” said a district official.
Traffic was less than normal and most people including the few tourists who are still here preferred to stay indoors. “We were supposed to go sightseeing but we decided to remain indoors because of the weather,” said Anup Ghosh, a tourist from Bankura.
Sources at the regional meteorological station in Jalpaiguri said Darjeeling had received 101.5mm of rainfall in the past 24 hours.
However, more rain has been predicted for the region in the next 24 hours. Indranil Sengupta, assistant meteorologist at the Jalpaiguri station, said they were expecting 26mm to 36mm of rain in the Teesta catchment area that includes the Darjeeling hills. “There is a depression over Dhanbad in Jharkhand which is causing the rainfall and the strong winds that have been blowing across the region,” Sengupta said.