Giant tree falls on high tension power cables in Pune

Over one lakh consumers in Fatimanagar, Wanowrie and other areas went without power for several hours on Thursday after a 35-feet tall Ashoka tree near Swarang Apartment got uprooted and fell on the high tension (HT) electricity cables. Nobody was injured in the incident.

Deepak Khere, fire brigade supervisor of Pune Cantonment Board said, “The tree got uprooted around 10.30 am and five electricity poles in the area got twisted following the incident. It took us more than 30 minutes to remove the tree from the HT wires.”
Local resident Vikram Pardeshi said, “The tree was very old and it was in a huge compound. The area near the tree was dug up because of which the tree lost its rooting.”

MSEDCL public relations officer Nishikant Raut said, “We have a major work to complete as we will have to install new poles and get the wires back in place.”

Meanwhile, the MSEDCL issued a press note stating that more than one lakh consumers were hit by the power failure. Residents of Manish Tower, Balaji Darshan, Parekh Tower and other areas in Fatimanagar and Wanowrie went without power till 6 in the evening.

The MSEDCL had to bear an expenditure of Rs2 lakh for installing new poles and two Distribution Point (DP) boxes to restore the power supply.