With Independence Day around the corner, private power company BSES issued an advisory urging Delhiites not to fly kites near electricity installations and overhead wires as it may cause tripping.
Reiterating the need to be cautious while flying kites, a BSES spokesperson said, "People should enjoy kite flying during the Independence Day celebrations. But they should do it responsibly. We advise residents not to fly kites near electricity installations, including overhead cables and certainly avoid using metal coated manjhas. These two simple mantras will ensure safe I-Day celebrations."
The advisory issued by the power discom added that the wide-spread use of metal coated manjha — being a good conductor of electricity — poses a great danger not only to the person flying the kite, but may also disrupt electricity supply of an area. "When these metal coated manjha comes in contact with a live overhead wire, it causes tripping, resulting in blackout of the area. Not just electrical equipments get affected, the risk to life is a bigger danger of reckless kite flying. If the entangled manjha happens to be metal coated, it can even lead to electrocution of the 'kite-flyer'," it said.
It is estimated that tripping of just one 33/66 KV overhead line can disrupt power supply to over 10,000 residents of an area. And each year there are scores of such incidents in the city. last year, there were around 20 kite-flying related large outages in BSES' area, said the advisory adding that tripping-related outages can take anywhere between 15 minutes to 2 hours to rectify.