Tipper driver’s negligence leads to power disruption

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 20

A tipper driver’s negligence in driving the vehicle without downing the rear container after unloading sand on Wednesday led to disruption of power supply to several localities and cost the PSPCL about Rs 3 lakh. It also affected the smooth flow of traffic.

An 11-kv power cable got entangled in the raised rear part of the tipper which dragged it so powerfully that six electric pillars were uprooted and supply to five power cable feeders got snapped. However, no loss of life or injury was reported as the power supply was passing through the 40 mm square insulated cable.

However, the cable wires came down across the stretch outside Jassa Singh Ramgarhia park on the GT road. So, the traffic police barricaded the area and diverted traffic to other roads. The stretch remained out of bound for traffic till evening. People remained stuck in long traffic jams. Traffic chaos was witnessed on the GT road stretch between Ram Talai Chowk and 100 feet intersection as power cables and its pillars came down.

Balkrishan, Deputy Chief Engineer (City Circle) of PSPCL, said the incident occurred at 5.50 pm on Tuesday and the power supply was restored by 11 pm last night. Power supply to Ravidas road, East Mohan Nagar, Sarwarpura, Sri Guru Ramdas area, Tut Sahib, Gurnam Nagar and surrounding areas remained affected.

He informed that power supply to three feeders were restored by 8 am this morning, which caused a loss of Rs 1.80 lakh to the PSPCL and the supply to the remaining two feeders was yet to be restored. These two caused a loss of about Rs 1.25 lakh to PSPCL. He asserted the PSPCL would recover the losses from the person and would also lodge an FIR against him.