High tension electric wires pass close to many buildings at Chintamaniswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, April 24: In a tragic incident, a 25-year-old employee of a city-based lodge was electrocuted after coming in contact with a high voltage electric line while trying to retrieve clothes that had been blown away by the wind.

Srikant Singhdeo, who hailed from Khandapada in Nayagarh district, worked as a service boy in a motel in the busy Chintamaniswar area on National Highway 203.

Sources said he was trying to pull the clothes with the help of an iron rod when the rod touched a high voltage overhead electric wire. The electric line ran parallel to the second floor balcony of the lodge.

According to the hotel staff, Singhdeo had dried his shirt and trouser on the second floor balcony of the lodge but the clothes were blown away to the 11KV electric wires by the wind. When Srikant tried to retrieve the clothes with the help of an iron rod in the afternoon, he got electrocuted.

“When we saw him, he was lying on the wall of the balcony. We removed the iron rod from the cable with the help of a stick. By that time he had already died,” said Amar Tripathy, an employee of the lodge.

Later, Laxmisagar police were informed and they took his body to a hospital for post-mortem. Police said that when they reached the spot the youth’s charred body was lying on the balcony of the lodge. “He had died on the spot. We have sent the body for postmortem,” said a police officer.

This incident has created panic among the citizens and raised questions about the safety and security of the buildings which have high voltage electric wires passing around them.

Not only this lodge, but most of the hotels and business establishments along NH203 from Rasulgarh to Samantarapur have a 11KV line passing around their buildings.

Niranjan Swain, the general manager of Central Electricity Suppliers Utility (Cesu), responsible for energy distribution in the state, said that buildings should remain at least eight feet away from such electric lines both in front and at the back. However, he refused to comment on why steps were not being taken against violators.

The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) officials said in the Planning and Building Standard Regulations, 2008, of the BDA, it had been clearly mentioned that houses and commercial establishments should be constructed with at least two-metres away from such high voltage wires. People were also supposed to protect their balconies with grills if electric lines passed close by them. But people were not following this norms.

Planning Member of BDA Prasant Pattnaik said that as the violation is not a cognisable offence and the authorities have to follow a long and complicated procedure to take legal action against the violators, many continue to defy rules. “But we keep taking action against violators when necessary,” said Pattnaik, adding that people have to be careful about these matters.