Power was restored in the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and airport by Thursday morning and efforts were on to restore power in the IT special economic zones at Rushikonda and to units in the AP SEZ at Parawada and units in pharma city, according to Ajay Jain, the State Energy Secretary.
Reviewing the power situation here on Thursday morning, he said the priority would, however, be to restore power to domestic consumers. Power could be restored to 80,000 households by Thursday afternoon. He said: "By tonight we will provide power to 2.5 lakh connections. The Chief Minister has left instructions that by Saturday power should be provided to the entire city. We may fall a little short of his expectations and the public's expectations. However, we are confident that we will be able to cover 80-90 per cent of the city by Saturday evening or so. In certain areas, the damage is very heavy and there are also certain logistical and technical problems impeding progress."
He said efforts were also being made to restore power to the rural areas in Visakhapatnam district, and the tribal villages and hamlets in the agency areas of the district. "However, it may take much longer to reach the remote villages in the Eastern Ghats. We could restore power at the Araku sub-station," he said.
He said efforts were also being made to restore power to Vizianagaram and Srikakulam towns and other areas in the two districts. "We are receiving electric poles and other material from Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar and more than 9,000 men are at work. We are deploying 2,500 more personnel from the neighbouring States. Of them, 1,500 have arrived and the rest will be here by evening," he said.
The steel plant authorities said the first priority would be to activate the captive power plant and also the blast furnace and other essential units. Production cannot resume immediately, but the blast furnace and other key units would be kept in readiness. “It is the first step in restoring normalcy,” said a senior official.