Bhubaneswar: With the restoration of water supplies and power, city life is slowly limping back to normal in cyclone Fani-affected areas of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
Six days after the cyclone battered the coast, people are seen moving outdoors and getting back to their normal daily. Road traffic is back to business as usual in the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
However, there is no significant improvement in Puri district and the pilgrim town. Although the government has ensures restoration of water supply to the holy town, power supply is yet to reach the people.
Many malls, cinema halls, hotels and commercial establishments have started operation in the cities while power supply has been restored to all emergency services including hospitals.
Informing about the updates on restoration work here Thursday, Information and Public Relation Secretary Sanjay Singh said power restoration work has picked up after additional skilled manpower from West Bengal, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh reached Odisha. Thanks to the skilled manpower, restoration work is underway day and night despite severe heat wave condition prevailing in the twin cities.
Power supply has been restored in many areas of Cuttack while work is in full swing at Jagatpur industrial area, Singh said.
At least 36 per cent of domestic consumers in Bhubaneswar have got back power supply till Thursday morning and about 80 per cent are expected to get power supplies restored by Friday night, he claimed.
“Of the 58,000 consumers under BCDD-I division of Bhubaneswar, 37,000 have been reconnected. Similarly, power supply has been restored to 33, 000 out of 97, 000 consumers under BCDD-II division of Bhubaneswar. There are 78, 000 consumers under Bhubaneswar Electrical Division (BED), and power supply has been restored to 16, 000 consumers,” the secretary told Orissa POST.
Water supply to all 13 affected Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) has been restored fully while 1550 out of 2364 rural piped water projects have been made functional in five cyclone affected districts of Odisha.
Banking services have partially resumed in some urban pockets of Puri, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jagtsinghpur and Kendrapara. Some bank branches and ATMs have also started functioning with the restoration of power and internet service.
Out of 239 bank branches in Puri, 60 have resumed operations and out of 273 ATM kiosks, 20 have started functioning. Similarly, of 707 bank branches in Khurda district, 372 are functioning and of 1,164 ATM counters, 197 have been made operational.
In Cuttack, there are 422 branches of various banks and 260 of them are functioning while 162 out of 593 ATM counters are serving the people, indicated Singh.
Of the 78 bank units in Jagatsinghpur, 123 have reopened while 112 ATM counters out of 196 are now operating. In Kendrapara district, of 144 bank branches, 113 are functioning now while 105 ATM counters out of 169 are working.
The government has directed the banks to keep their branches open even if there is no power supply or no internet connection. The government plans to convene a state-level bankers’ committee (SLBC) meeting soon to resolve banking issues.
With regard to casualties, Singh said the calamity claimed 41 lives across the state so far. No fresh case of death has been reported.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India has asked all the operational banks to keep the branches open till 6 pm in the evening to cater to the needs of the people battered by the severe cyclonic storm.
The I&PR secretary said the state has asked the insurance companies to assess losses and ensure that the affected people get compensation without delay.
An unofficial source said the total amount of insurance claims due to cyclone Fani in coastal Odisha was estimated to be Rs 2,000 crore.
When asked about media reports that 4000 deer from Balukhand wildlife sanctuary in Puri have gone missing after cyclone ‘Fani’, he said not a single death of wild animal has been reported till now.
