Odisha’s ambitious plan to install a power transmission system immune to cyclones and natural disasters has come a cropper, thanks to funds constraints and lack of interest from the state energy department to pursue the plan.
As a result, millions of people in vast swatches of area in economically thriving towns like Puri, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and villages surrounding them still remain without electricity and the services linked to it such as water supply and telecommunication, even after five days of Fani, a summer storm of high severity that hit the coast near Puri last week.
Power infrastructure being a prime casualty to vagaries of recurring cyclones, the then state energy secretary had announced the plan to implement Disaster Resilient Power Supply (DRPS) scheme immediately after Phailin, another devastating cyclone which pummelled the south Odisha coast in 2013.
