Transformer catches fire in Raikot

Our Correspondent

Raikot, March 15

Various localities of this historic town remained under the cover of darkness as a 20MHz power transformer installed at the 66 KV substation was completely burnt.

Had fire brigades from the Air Force Station at Halwara and Jagraon not reached, the loss could have been much bigger as the substation is situated in a thickly inhabited residential area of the town.

The authorities had to call fire brigades from Halwara and Jagraon as there were no arrangements to put off the fire at electrical installations in the town.

Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Harpreet Singh Soodan and executive engineer Amarjit Singh Grewal supervised the operations which continued till late in the evening.

Though the exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, officials suspected that the burning of bushes inside the transformer had led to the incident. Authorities said power supply would be resumed only after the maintenance work is over. A large number of protection and transmission cables was also damaged in the incident.

Meanwhile, residents of the area demanded that the substation should be shifted away from the residential area and a fire brigade should be set up in the town.

Justifying the demand raised by the residents, Congress legislator Gurcharan Singh Boparai said he had already raised the issue of setting up a fire brigade in the assembly, but nothing concrete has been done in this direction.