Cyclone Fani made a landfall in Odisha's Puri on Friday.
The number of deaths in cyclone Fani on Wednesday rose to 41 against the 37 till yesterday, officials confirmed today. Information and Public Relations secretary Sanjay Singh, however, did not name the districts from where fresh deaths were reported.
The official said restoration of water supply was the first priority of the state government after the cyclone and it has been achieved in both Bhubaneswar and most parts of Puri.
"We have engaged diesel generators in places for running the water pumps where electricity is not available," he said.
He said work for power restoration is on full wing in the affected areas of Odisha with additional skilled manpower being drawn from other states.
"We will be able to fully restore power supply in the state capital by May 12," Mr Singh said while briefing the media on the restoration works following the massive devastation due to cyclone Fani that made a landfall in Puri on Friday, ripping apart water supply, electricity and telecom infrastructure in over 11 coastal districts of Odisha.
"While 80 per cent of electricity consumers will get power by May 10, the process will be completed by May 12 in Bhubaneswar," Mr Singh said.
He, however, could not give any time line for full restoration of power supply in Puri district in the face of massive destruction of infrastructure in the worst cyclone hit areas.
"We have to rebuild the power infrastructure afresh in many places of Puri district which was slammed by high velocity wind at a speed of over 200 kmph," Mr Singh said.
Cyclone Fani has damaged five 400 kv towers, 27 number of 220 kv towers, 21 number of 130 kv towers, four 220 kv grids, and four 132 kv grids in Puri.
Similarly, 5,030 km of 33 kv lines, 38,613 km of 11 kv line, 11,077 distribution transformers, and 79,485 km of low tension lines have been damaged in the calamity, the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) said in its situation report.
The government has sought cooperation of the power consumers and said time is required to fully restore power connection in the cyclone devastated areas. As many as 1.56 lakh new electric poles have been uprooted in the 'extremely severe' cyclone Fani.
Meanwhile, the state government has launched the relief work in Bhubaneswar and issued direction to start the relief distribution in other affected districts as well.
The miseries of the people were compounded with high humidity levels which soared above 90 per cent in coastal districts.
Apart from water supply, lack of power supply has also hit filling stations, banking service, health services and affected more than 1.4 crore people in the coastal region of the state.
The situation has been so precarious that people have started leaving the state capital due to lack of essential services.