Major industrial units at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh suffered extensive damage due to cyclone Hudhud. Grid failure has lead Vizag Steel Plant to shut down its operations. The damage to the plant is estimated at 700 crore rupees.
Life in Vishakhapatnam, which suffered maximum damage due to the cyclone, is gradually limping back to normal. Vizag Steel Plant, the biggest public-sector enterprise, suffered major damages. It is also losing daily Rs.40 crore due to loss of production.
The production is not likely to resume for another four to five days. The Visakhapatnam airport is likely to resume commercial operations on a limited scale in a week. The Visakhapatnam and the Gangavaram ports, which together handle 85 million tonnes of cargo, have suspended their operations.
The hull shop and other infrastructure of Hindustan Shipyard Ltd., a Defence Ministry enterprise, were blown away. Communication installations were uprooted at many places making both landline and mobile phones dead.
Power supply has been restored in 25 per cent of the area. The Eastern Power Distribution Company in its primary estimates has found a loss of Rs 571 crore to the department. Three days after Cyclone Hudhud battered Visakhapatnam people are still struggling to procure basic essentials like water, milk, candles and petrol that to at double the normal prices.
People’s anger at being in darkness owing to complete blackout and totally cut off was in full display. They demanded that power and water supply be restored. It would take another 48 hours to restore power in some parts of the city and about a week in the districts, according to the Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power distribution Corporation Limited.
Over 12,000 electric poles have fallen down and over 7,500 distribution transformers have been damaged across the three districts. Electricity shortage has a cascading affect on everything and people were forced to live in darkness for the last four days. Andhra Pradesh government is trying its best to restore power and communications lines.
Odisha has been asked to supply power to Srikakulam as there is little chance to get electricity from the Andhra Pradesh grid owing to the snapping of transmission lines between Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam. Meanwhile, Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation has promised people that it would resume water supply from today.
In Visakhapatnam schools have been shut till 19th October and the school administrations have been told to secure all basic services for normal functioning when they reopen on 20th.
