Power supply to several parts of Ludhiana remained disrupted for more than eight hours on Wednesday after a 66 KV underground transmission cable was damaged during excavation work undertaken by the municipal corporation to repair a water leakage near College Road.The repair work being carried out by the civic body near College Road in Ludhiana on Wednesday. (HT Photo)The damage affected supply through 12 feeders linked to the Fountain Chowk grid, disrupting electricity in Civil Lines, Mall Road, Ram Nagar, Chand Nagar, Dandi Swami Road and adjoining localities. Supply was also affected at several government establishments, police offices and official residences connected to the grid.According to PSPCL officials, the incident occurred around 9.30 am when an MC team was carrying out excavation work to repair a water leakage. During the operation, a JCB machine allegedly struck the underground transmission cable, resulting in an immediate power failure.The outage also impacted functioning at the civil surgeon’s office complex, where a community health centre catering to nearly 70 to 80 patients daily had to make alternative arrangements to continue services.Staff nurses at the centre say that there was no power since morning, affecting diagnostic services and causing inconvenience to patients visiting the facility.Several government offices and commercial establishments also reported disruption in routine operations.Senior engineers from PSPCL’s transmission and distribution wings rushed to the site and initiated restoration work soon after the fault was reported. Preliminary assessment revealed extensive damage to the underground infrastructure, with one cable completely damaged and two others sustaining significant damage.To minimise inconvenience, PSPCL carried out emergency switching operations and diverted load through alternative sources.Electricity supply was restored in some affected areas between 2.30 pm and 3 pm, while repair work on the damaged transmission line continued till the filing of this report.PSPCL’s additional superintending engineer (city west) Sukhbir Singh said all 12 feeders connected to the Fountain Chowk 66 KV grid were affected due to the damage caused during the excavation work being carried out by the civic body. “Restoration measures were initiated immediately and the extent of the damage, along with the financial loss caused by the incident, is being assessed. We will issue a notice to the municipal corporation over the damage caused to the transmission infrastructure after assessing the damage.”Repeated calls made to municipal corporation superintending engineer Sham Lal Gupta (zone D) went unanswered.