2,000 Pune residents wake up to power outage

For over fours hours early Saturday morning, many residents of Kondhwa, NIBM Road and adjoining areas furiously dialled the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) helpline. They were trying to figure out why the power supply in their homes had been cut off.

Suffering intermittent power cuts for the past few days, thanks to the advent of monsoon and its related problems at power junctions, the problem on Saturday became almost too much to bear as residents suffered in silence waiting for the power to return. Nearly 2,000 houses were affected, especially in the neighbourhood of NIBM Road, Bhagyodaynagar and Badshahnagar.

Jumana Arthunawala of Mayfair Eleganza Society on NIBM Road said, “I noticed that the lights and fans went off around 2 am and the electric supply was not restored till 5.15 am. I stayed up the entire night.”

Residents of Kondhwa faced power cuts twice and for much longer hours.

Homemaker Jahanara (42), who lives at Ashoka Mews Society, said, “We didn’t get sleep because of power outage for 4-5 hours during the night. Power supply was interrupted for two hours again at 9 am,” she said.

MSEDCL officials said that a 22kV underground cable caught moisture and developed faults at two places. Fire brigade officials were also called to the spot after residents noticed sparks at the main feeder.

“The matter was immediately reported to the technical team. While the supply was back feed through transformer to several areas, four transformers that supply power to certain areas in Kondhwa were forced to shut down till nearly 9 am.”

On monsoon preparedness, a MSEDCL official said, “We are taking extra care to prevent any water logging or moisture to build up that may lead to the underground cables to dysfunction. However, there also looms the threat of tree fall cases during this season.”

Helpline

The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd has launched a 24x7 helpline to deal with power outages during the monsoon. The helpline numbers are :  7875767058 /7875767123