Andhra engineers use drone to restore power across raging river

Engineers at the Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited (APEPDCL) made use of drone technology to innovatively restore  power to five villages in East Godavari district's Tuni mandal.

In the recent heavy rains due to the deep depression, five villages between Kolimeru and S. S. Venkatanagaram were cut off from power supply.

Tuni is 257 km north east of Vijayawada, on the east coast of India by the Bay of Bengal.

The only way to reach those villages was to cross the Thandava river, which was in spate because of the downpour.

"Thandava was gushing with floodwaters at full spate. It was not possible for anyone to either swim or row a boat to the other side carrying the necessary electrical equipment," an APEPDCL engineer told IANS.

Considering the difficulties, the engineers innovatively flew a drone to the other of the bank, carrying a thin fishing wire to which they later tied a stronger rope made  of coconut fibre to pass the equipment.

"Once the fishing wire was passed to the other bank, we tied a strong rope made of coconut fibre to be tied to the fishing wire and got it pulled to the other side, through  which we passed a conductor," said the engineer.

He said the conductor would weigh some 30 kg, which could be handled only by a stronger coconut fibre rope of some 10 kg as the drone cannot carry the conductor.

"Later, we managed to restore power to those five villages, otherwise the villagers would have had to wait for another five days," he added.