KOLKATA: Trees were not only the casualties on Tuesday’s squall. Over 300 electric posts were either uprooted, twisted or damaged.Kolkata Municipal Corporation electrical department teams have been engaged in replacing and repairing these lamp posts to bring back normalcy in areas across the city.However, a section of civic officials conceded that it was an uphill task to replace the uprooted electric poles considering that majority of these poles were entangled with loads of electric and cable wires.In fact, cable wires hung on the poles has been one of the reasons why the street electric poles were uprooted in large numbers.This apart, large trees which were planted close to electric poles had much to do with the uprooting of the polls.“We have closely watched the condition of over 100 electric poles located along the major thoroughfares or bridges. These poles were completely uprooted after being hit by a falling tree. Many of these poles had become top heavy because of the enormous load of cable wires. That also led to the uprooting,” said a senior official in the KMC lighting department.An area-wise survey has revealed that most of the damaged electric polls were installed along city’s major roads. Some of the areas where these electric polls were uprooted include Dum Dum, Cossipore, Northern Avenue, Chitpore, Beliaghata, Rajabazar, Elliot Road, Kidderpore, Alipore, Chetla, Behala and Tollygunge.Jiban Mitra, a resident of Moore Avenue recalled how it was a close shave for him when he was passing through a playground.“It was 8pm when I was approaching Santinagar playground from Ranikuthi end. I was in a dilemma whether to stop my car and wait for the storm to get over. All of a sudden a large tree along with an electric pole fell just in front of my car. I was saved by a whisker,” Mitra said.In fact, the KMC parks department personnel took 48 hours to remove the tree and the lamp post. “Lots of wires were entangled in the electric poll. First, we had to call a cable operator who remove the wires followed by which we removed the pole,” said a KMC parks department official. Apart from Moore Avenue, the civic officials had to take much trouble to remove and replace electric pole at Rajabazar, Beliaghata Chetla and Kidderpore areas because of the crowded streets.

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