Guwahati, April 26: The Assam State Electricity Board’s transmission and distribution network has taken a heavy pounding from the cyclonic storms over the past one month, resulting in losses to the tune to nearly Rs 35 crore, according to initial estimates.

“The figure could go up once we are done with making a full estimate of the extent of damage to our network. The initial estimate is based on a preliminary study,” power minister Pradyut Bordoloi told The Telegraph here today.

Other states of the Northeast, too, have faced nature’s fury with Meghalaya, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh’s power infrastructure taking a severe beating.

Assam, in particular, has witnessed an unusually stormy April this year, with powerful Nor’westers whipping up storms frequently over the past few weeks, resulting in heavy loss of life and property. The most devastating cyclonic storm occurred on Saturday evening across several places in lower Assam, including the capital where the wind speed crossed the 100km/hour barrier. Six were killed in the state on Saturday, two in Guwahati.

A senior ASEB official based in Guwahati said the storms have uprooted transmission towers, snapped cables with trees falling over them and damaged transformers. “Though we have restored power in almost all the affected areas, these are only on a temporary basis. We will need around two-three months to complete permanent restoration,” the official added.

While innumerable posts carrying 33KV lines have been uprooted across the state, big transmission towers of 120KV and 240KV, too, have been uprooted in places like Tinsukia and Goalpara.

In fact, the power minister’s home constituency, Margherita, is one of the worst affected areas. Arpan Saikia, deputy general manager of the Tinsukia electrical circle, revealed that nearly 150 poles have been uprooted in the Margherita division while in Digboi and Doomdooma, 100 and 150 poles have been uprooted.

In Karimganj district, too, cyclonic storms raging since April 19 have wreaked havoc, damaging the power supply system. District executive engineer of ASEB Dipankar Nath today said over telephone that a large network of transmission lines have been damaged in Patherkandi block in the Nor’westers during the past week.

The situation took another grim turn last night when another cyclone ravaged the Badarpur block on the Indo-Bangladesh border.

He added that though power supply to Karimganj town had been restored, many rural areas are still without power.

Goalpara deputy commissioner Prafulla Kumar Goswami said extensive damage had been caused to electricity posts and cables, disrupting power in the entire district since last night. “It will take another 48 hours to restore normal power supply,” he added.

In Dhubri, two major transformers and a 33KV tower have been damaged in the Gouripur police station area.

In Arunachal Pradesh, two 750KV and 500KV power cables snapped when the towers were uprooted in Dibang Valley on Saturday during a severe cyclonic storm. A power department official said supply to the district headquarters town of Roing has been severely affected and it would take a couple of days to restore power. Saturday’s storm also lashed parts of Lower Dibang Valley and Lohit, snapping power cables and posts.

In Meghalaya, the areas bordering Bangladesh have been affected badly by the series of storms raging through the state. “It will take a few days to restore power to the interior areas,” E.B. Kharmujai, a spokesperson for the Meghalaya State Electricity Board, said.

In Manipur, a 12-year-old boy was injured when he touched a live wire, which snapped after a severe storm on April 20 at Kumbi in Bishnupur.