Thunderstorm blacks out South Sikkim

NAMCHI, 05 June: Heavy rain accompanied by strong thunderstorm in South Sikkim last evening has caused extensive damage here uprooting trees and damaging the electricity supply lines in different places. Most parts of South Sikkim have been blacked out for more than 24 hours and another 72 hours are needed to restore power supply in the area, it is learnt.
According to Assistant Engineer, Jagat Thapa, a team from the Power department along with additional labour has been deployed by the department to restore the damaged power lines. He further informed that damage was so severe that power supply of Namchi (LT line and 11 KV high transmission line) was totally damaged due to trees falling at different places.
He also informed that another 3 to 4 days is needed to completely restore the damages and they are trying their best for early restoration.
“Our entire team along with additional workers is working at different segments of damage”, said Mr Thapa adding that they are trying to restore the bazaar areas first.
Power supply was briefly restored to some parts of Namchi by 8 pm this evening, however, the supply remained erratic.
People coming for official work, bank related work and businesses suffered the most throughout the day.