Truck accident: TCN engages contractor to repair knocked down tower

The Transmission Company of Nigeria(TCN) has engaged a contractor for the reconstruction of its tower located in Gunduwawa Village in Kano State, which was knocked down by a truck.

Mrs Ndidi Mbah, TCN General Manager Public Affairs in statement in Abuja on Monday said that electricity supply infrastructure in North-west Nigeria was disrupted a truck hit one the towers in the region, throwing some areas into darkness.

“A contractor has already been contracted to reconstruct the tower. He is expected to mobilize to the site of the incident on Tuesday.

”At about 9.28am on Sunday, the Kano-Hadejia 132 Kilo Volt (kV) Transmission Line tripped, losing about 16.6 (MW).

“Trial re-closure of the line to enable continued bulk power supply failed, prompting the immediate dispatch of a patrol team to survey the line.

“Our team found out that a trailer truck carrying a container had hit tower T16 situated in Gunduwawa and destroyed two legs of the tower causing it to buckle and fall,” she said.

According to her, the incident caused the tripping of the line, cutting off supply as the tower fell on the container and hit a nearby residential building damaging a part of it.

”Although no life was lost, the incident has been reported to Gezawa Divisional Police Station and the driver has also been detained.

”Unfortunately, this has put Hadejia, Gumel, Gagarawa, Nguru, Mallammadori, Birniwa, Kafin- Hausa, Auyo, Guri, Kaugama, Taura, Garki, Maigatari, Babura, Kirikasamma, Machina Local Government Areas in Jigawa and Yobe States in darkness.

”Presently, there is no alternative source of bulk power supply to two of TCN’s substations, the Gagarawa and Hadejia substations.

”This means that the affected areas will not have supply until the tower is repaired,” she said.

Mbah said that TCN pledges to do everything possible to quickly dismantle the damaged tower, re-erect a new one and restring the lines to enable the resumption of bulk power supply to the two substations.

She said that the restoration of the bulk supply would enable the Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) offtake power for its customers within the affected areas.