Joy and sorrow are inseparable! Though sudden change in weather conditions brought respite from unrelenting heat waves in the State capital on Saturday, intermittent showers accompanied by gusty winds and rains besides hailstorms uprooted several trees at many places claiming one life. It also affected power supply in the State.
A 42-year-old lIC employee was crushed to death under an uprooted tree near Manan Vidya Mandir near Booty More. A house was destroyed in Tiril Basti in Kokar after it was struck by lightning.
The deceased was identified as Subir Banerjee a resident of Dandratoli area in Ranchi. The Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) is battling against the nature to restore the power supply. The cool breeze that started on Saturday afternoon brought relief to people. However, it was short-lived as darkness descended in city due to power cut.
“The system goes haywire at the moment. Overhead conductors have broken at many places due to storm and rain. It will take time to restore electricity supply,” said JSEB PRO Pandey Ramanikant Sinha.
The electricity board received reports of fallen tree at several locations, including Kanke Road and disruptions at HEC feeder due to numerous small trees uprooted by strong winds. Reports of fallen trees were received from as many as 12 locations and three substations-RMCH, Morhabadi and Rajbhawan-had been badly affected due to inclement weather.
“We rectified the fault after patrolling all areas but the problem started as soon as wind intensified. We could not remove some of the fallen trees as they are very big. We will restore the three substations in one and half hour,” said Superintending Engineer, Anil Kumar.
Meanwhile, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted reoccurrence of similar weather conditions in the next 24 hours. According to the Ranchi office of the IMD, areas of Ranchi, Hazaribagh provide moisture to the weather leading to formation of cloud at high altitudes that leads to hailstorms and thunderstorms.
"We may experience similar conditions in the next 24 hours," said Director-cum- Scientist at IMD Ranchi BK Mandal.
Rains threw normal life out of gear and it posed a great challenge to commuters running for cover. Absence of traffic police personnel at prominent squares and crossroads on city's prominent stretches added to the woes of commuters. The Traffic police expressed helplessness in such situations citing inadequate strength of staff besides lack of necessary gear for protection in rain. Ranchi Traffic police is said to have a sanctioned strength of 600 staff but it is managing traffic with barely 250 police personnel.
"We receive manpower from other districts. Around 80 staff were called for election duty and they have not returned. Moreover, we don't provide protective gear to a constable and that is the reason most of the traffic posts are unmanned when rain starts," maintained SP (Traffic) Rajiv Ranjan Singh.