Ground report from Berhampur: Ten days after cyclone Phailin, Ganjam remains powerless

By Jajati Karan, CNN-IBN

It has been ten days now that the worst cyclone, Phailin, hit the Ganjam district in Odisha has been plunged in darkness as the district's entire power system has literally been blown away. To know about the hardship the four million people staying in this district are facing, CNN-IBN spent a night in Berhampur city and its adjoining villages. As the sun sets in Ganjam, it looks as if the entire district has gone back to the dark ages. It's hard to believe that Behrampur is the commercial capital of South Odisha. Post cyclone Phailin, this entire area has no power supply.

Odisha: Ten days after cyclone Phailin, Ganjam remains powerless

The first sight in the city was a long queue at an ATM, which was one of the few working. "We can't do anything without power. Life has become so difficult," said Aan, a medical student of MKCG medical college. In a grocery shop which had a power generator, there was a sudden rush to charge mobile phones. The shopkeeper charges Rs 20 per hour from desperate customers like retired government servant Manoranjan Sarangi. "My daughters and son stay outside Odisha and this mobile is the only means of communication, so I have to charge it at any cost," Manoranjan said.

At one of the main streets of Berhampur at 8 pm at night, when the city should buzz with activities, most of the commercial establishments remain closed and the city comes to a standstill. The only light one sees is the temporary lamp post set by Odisha government's OSDMA. If the city life in Berhampur is a nightmare, for villages the situation is worse.

Cyclone affected Saraswati Sahoo said, "We elders and the men sleep outside on the streets, whereas our young girls have to sleep in dark inside the house though it's very hot inside." The power crisis has led to an acute water shortage.

Efforts to supply drinking water through tankers are inadequate. Restoration of electricity towers, damaged by the cyclone, is progressing slowly. GRIDCO CMD Hemant Sharma said, "The task before us is mammoth. The damage which has taken place should normally take three years but we are trying to do it in the shortest possible time."

According to top sources of the Odisha government, it will take at least 10 days in Berhampur and more than a month in the entire Ganjam district for power to fully restore and until then the ordeal of the people like these is not going to end anytime soon.
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