Cyclone Amphan: Telecommunications Dept, Power Ministry ready with plan

New Delhi [India], May 19 (ANI): The Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Power are ready with their plan to deal with the situation arising out of cyclone Amphan.
Addressing a press conference here, Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash said that disaster preparedness plan has been operationalised after discussion with all telecom operators of affected districts in both states.
"Telecom cables, antennas and towers get damaged during a cyclone as strong as this. telecom service providers have been asked to arrange a sufficient number of generator sets with enough diesel and station them in all districts so that if there is any power disruption, then the towers can be restarted with the help of these gen-sets," he said.
"Spare parts, optical fibre cables will be kept in adequate quantity, fault repair teams to do prompt repair," he said
Prakash informed that arrangements have been made to keep citizens in affected districts alerted regarding evacuation, through free SMS alerts in the local language, frequency and modality of messaging has been left to the states.
The telecom secretary said that intra-circle roaming will be operational after the passing of the cyclone.
"After the passing of cyclone Amphan, intra-circle roaming will be operational, i.e., subscribers will be able to latch on to the network of whichever telecom operator is available, if services of the operator whose services they are using get disrupted," Prakash said.
"Special focus will be laid on base station controllers and mobile switching centres since damage to these will affect many telecom towers. Broadband connections to authorities will be restored on priority, to facilitate the functioning of relief teams," he said.
Prakash said that the control room in the Department of Telecommunications will be operational 24x7 from tomorrow.
"A senior officer will coordinate with all telecom operators and states, similar arrangement for coordination with infra providers too, hope to restore normalcy soon," he said.
SKG Rahate, Secretary, Ministry of Power said that emergency restoration system has been set up to handle power disruptions in both Odisha and West Bengal.
"24x7 control room operational is in Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar and Power Grid HQ... Transmission lines and sub-stations situated in high impact areas of Amphan have been identified and placed on high alert. Required restoration system has been put in place at identified locations. Required assistance will be given to state power utilities," he said.
According to the Ministry of Earth Science, Cyclone Amphan is very likely to move north-northeastwards across the northwest Bay of Bengal and cross West Bengal - Bangladesh coasts between Digha (West Bengal) and Hatiya Islands (Bangladesh) close to Sundarbans during the afternoon to evening hours of May 20 with maximum sustained wind speed of 155-165 kmph gusting to 185 kmph. (ANI)