The cyclone, it appears, has been a blessing in disguise for generator suppliers who have done brisk business in Calcutta and neighbouring areas, which were without power till Tuesday night.
Tapas Halder and Gopal Mandal — electricians by profession — who have been without any business during the lockdown now have money. They charged a premium as they rented out their generator sets, enabling houses to use pumps to draw water from reservoirs to overhead tanks.
The rates ranged from Rs 15,00 to Rs 2,000 an hour as desperate residents took such sets to survive the prolonged power cut.
Generator suppliers had been roaming the streets in the Regent Estate area, one of the worst-hit residential complexes in Jadavpur, with generator sets on rickshaws, searching for potential customers, since the cyclone raged across the city on May 20.
