May is proving harsh in the peak season this year as four high-intensity dust storms since May 4 have uprooted 900 electric poles, besides damaging more than 20 transformers. “Rural areas have suffered more loss than the urban sector of Gurgaon circle. However, our staff have worked overtime for the last fortnight to restore the supply,” claimed XEN (operations) of Manesar Division N.L. Dubey.

Probably, the nature’s fury has caught the DHBVN authorities unawares as they are finding it hard to arrange replacements. Sources said 1,000 new poles had been ordered from Agra but these had not reached Gurgaon so far. Some officers posted in rural areas, however, tried to salvage the situation by borrowing poles from private contractors. However, such initiatives were still found inadequate.

The situation has further compounded as the nature-induced sudden outages have affected the drinking water supply. The dust storm on May 11 that affected power supply to more than two dozen villages of Pataudi and Bhoara Kalan subdivisions due to uprooting of electric poles made people of these villages suffer on this count. It took a couple of days for the situation to normalise after villagers of the area approached the local authorities. Officially, around 85 electric poles were uprooted that snapped transmission lines in both subdivisions.

Another dust storm on Saturday night which claimed 13 lives due to a wall collapse, damaged 110 poles snapping supply through high and low-tension lines in Manesar division. Half a dozen transformers were also damaged. Though officials claimed to have restored supply in most of the villages here, sources said it would take some more time to repair the link lines. Power supply to around 100 small settlements outside the villages is yet to be restored.