CAB not to depend on CESC for power to floodlights
In a spot over the repeated cases of power failure in the Eden Gardens, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has decided not to further depend on power utility CESC, but to install high performance generators as the source for flood lights.
As the venue for Kolkata Knight Riders' seven home matches, Eden Gardens will host the first match in IPL-III on March 18 and the CAB does not want to take any risk, the Chairman of the floodlights committee Chirak Mitra said.
"We don't want to face the same situation again and again. There is not much of time with IPL-III beginning in March. We have thought about this and the (CAB) President Jagmohan Dalmiya too has decided that we would no more depend on CESC for power supply.
"We would acquire high power generator. We will either rent or buy the equipment for power source to the four tower lights. The CESC supply may be an alternative source," Mitra said.
Commissioner of Kolkata Police Gautam Mohan Chakraborty yesterday had said that they would not allow any day-night match at Eden Gardens unless the fault is corrected.
The CAB's seven-member committee comprising of Kolkata Police Commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti, Joint Commissioner (HQ) Javed Shamim besides officials Chitrak Mitra, Sadhan Mukherjee, Dilip Sen, S Biswas and P K Mullick was probing the Eden blackout and will submit their report soon.
The panel will look into the power black-out incident during the international one-dayer when the stadium plunged into near darkness after floodlights at the High Court end went off for nearly 26 minutes with just four balls remaining in the Sri Lankan innings on December 24.
The CESC Ltd has washed its hands off the incident, blaming the CAB for lack of maintenance as a blame game, similar to what happened after another blackout during the IPL last year, has already set forth.
"This is not because of CESC's fault. Supply was regular all through and had there been a fluctuation, other towers would have been affected. We have laid out three new dedicated cables from its distribution station and each line is capable of lighting up the entire stadium," a CESC official said.
CAB Joint Secretary Biswarup Dey countered the fault was not with the state cricket body and "we are just consumers like others".
