Transformer or deathtrap!

GUWAHATI, April 30: Guwahatians still get goosebumps when they recall some of the fatal power accidents that took a number of lives in the city during the monsoon in the past. However, the Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd (APDCL) seems to have learnt little from the worst experiences it had. 

Negligence on the part of APDCL leads to a number of power-related accidents in the city and elsewhere in the State. Pedestrians get their hair raised when they see an unfenced transformer by the side of Lachit Nagar Road in the city. The transformer is fraught with the risk of power-related accidents – it looks like an accident in waiting. 

The transformer is very low, besides being unfenced. A number of wires are also seen sticking out from it. The worst is that the transformer has been left unfenced. Its closeness to the main road is fraught with the risk of vehicles hitting it, leading to fatal accidents. 

The electric structure looks more like a deathtrap than a transformer. Is the APDCL waiting the worst to happen?

Monsoon water taking lives is not new in Guwahati. Every fatal power accident makes the authorities issue a directive to the department concerned to ensure safety by removing all such vulnerable transformers. However, when there are no fatal power accidents the APDCL hardly comes forward on its own to get such vulnerable transformers removed or making them secure by taking corrective steps. Will APDCL authorities have a look at this vulnerable transformer and take corrective measures before anything fatal takes place?