Calcutta, Sept. 24 :    Calcutta, Sept. 24:  The city reeled under power cuts during the day today after the heavy downpour since last night. About 25,000 telephones in the city and its suburbs went dead when water seeped into the cables. CESC officials said large parts of south, central and north, including Salt Lake, went without electricity for long hours. Fringe areas like Howrah, Jadavpur, Behala, Tiljala, Bangur, Dunlop, Dum Dum Park also reeled under power cuts. According to senior CESC official D.K. Sen, 30 feeder boxes in different parts of the city and its suburbs tripped because of seepage of water. Twenty other feeder boxes submerged under water have been shut down temporarily. The situation was even more grim in low-lying areas like Cornfield Road, Mandeville Gardens and College Street. ?The transformers are fixed on a plinth which is only two feet above the ground. Many of them have been submerged because of the heavy downpour, ? Sen said. ?We managed to switch off some of the transformers in time, but water has seeped into the others. These cannot be switched on immediately for fear of tripping or chances of electrocution.? He said there were 800 feeder boxes in the city and many of them had been switched off for safety reasons. Calcutta Telephone department officials said they have been receiving complaints from different parts of the city and estimated that at least 25,000 lines have gone dead. ?Work to restore them can only begin after the water has drained out from the streets. It could take days to normalise services,? an official said. The worst-affected exchanges include 412, 411, 449, 479, 473, 472, 556 and 555. The lines of many other exchanges have also been affected. Power supply was shut off at around 5 am when water started seeping into the transformers. Several CESC offices ? in Mandeville Gardens and Taratala ? were flooded up to the first floor. CESC director (operations), K.A. Siddiqui, said: ?There were requests to switch feeder boxes off after sparks were noticed by local residents in Alipore, New Alipore, Rashbehari, Jodhpur Park, Khidderpur and other areas.? He added that a major transformer in Shyambazar supplying power to Shyampukur, Hathibagan and Baghbazar areas was still under water. ?This is an emergency. If 10 feeders are out of commission the power situation is considered bad,? Sen said. He added that CESC engineers had fanned out to different areas to check feeder boxes and ensure that water does not seep to the main switches and the high tension lines. ?The feeder boxes will be switched on only after the engineers are satisfied that they will not trip,? Sen said. A CESC official said the Calcutta Municipal Corporation was finding it difficult to drain out the water-logged streets as the switch rooms of the pumping stations were submerged. ?CESC engineers are trying to restore power to the pumps so that water can be drained out from city streets quickly,? the official added.