chennai in a lesson learned from the floods the tamil nadu electricity board tneb is moving to ensure that key electrical installations in buildings are not located in the basement where they could be damaged by rain runoff existing buildings that have power generator rooms and other electricity panels in the basement would have to quickly shift them to the ground floor at a height of three feet above ground level while tneb has asked planning and regulatory bodies like the cmda and municipal corporations to ensure this happens in a timebound manner it has decided not to give new service connections for those buildings that do not meet these criteria this order applies to all domestic commercial in dustrial establishments complexes and multistoreyed buildings the authorities concerned should ensure that all power consumers comply with this requirement before issuing completion certificates to get service connections from government agencies said a letter from the power utility to agencies cmda directorate of town and country planning all 10 corporations and directorate of rural development were among the agencies to which the letter has been sent the installation of power appliances at basement should be discouraged in public interest given the immense damage during the floods the letter said at least 18 patients in the in tensive critical care unit of the miot hospital died after the power unit and gensets kept in the basement shut down following flooding in december several highrise buildings across the city went without power for days after the basements got inundat ed cmda member secretary a karthik said the regulatory body would implement the tnebs directive credai an apex body of real estate developers welcomed tnebs move planning bodies allow power equipment in the stilt and basement floors but ma ority of the recent constructions do prefer them in the stilt unlike old structures credai tamil nadu chapter secretary s sridharan said builders however remained apprehensive about getting the equipment shifted to the ground floor as interruption of power supply for days would lead to shutting down of businesses temporarily while planning permission comes from local bodies validating the capacity and ensuring the safety of equipment installed comes from the chief electrical inspector to government builders sometimes keep metering sets and the secondary distribution system including ups in the basements n nandakumar of devinarayan housing a leading promoter said shifting of power rooms was inevitable in the ongoing projects