Residents of Aubrey Barker Road, Penny Lane and its environs in Georgetown have been without power since Thursday night when several Guyana Power and Light (GPL) poles fell as a consequence of ongoing road and drainage works.
Those works reportedly compromised the foundation of the network infrastructure.
At approximately 20:00 hrs Thursday, the power company received the report of fallen poles on Aubrey Barker Road, between Congress Drive and Kaikan Street.
A response team was dispatched to the area and discovered four fallen concrete poles. Later in the night though, several other poles fell.
Resident and owner of Dragon Garden Restaurant Peng Yang told the News Room on Friday that he first heard about the first set of fallen poles from his customers. But later in the night, those opposite his premises also fell.
Apart from no lights, Yang said he has a lot of goods that he needs to be frozen. As such, he’s patiently waiting for the power to be restored.
Head of Executive Management of GPL Kesh Nandlall was on the scene Friday morning with scores of workers from the power company. He estimates that power should be restored to the communities sometime Friday night.
“Apparently, the contractors dug into the foundation of these poles and weakened them and caused them to fall with a rippling effect,” he explained, adding, “Right now we have about nine concrete poles fallen and about six or seven other utility poles are down.”
He said the power company is trying to consolidate its resources so as to wrap up the work quickly.
“We are urging the communities to have patience with us. It’s something that happened that’s out of our control and we want to assure them that in the quickest possible time they will get back the supply of power.
“It will be back tonight. Last night I communicated that it will be back at 2 pm today, but that was four poles. Later in the night, another number of poles fell so more work had to be done but we are working; our commitment is to get it back as quickly as we can and we estimate by sometime tonight,” Nandlall added.
Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips visited the scene when the incident occurred and asked for citizens to exercise patience while the work is ongoing.
 poles fell as a consequence of ongoing road and drainage works. Those works reportedly compromised the foundation of the network infrastructure.){kind=link}