Lights off in CM Shinde’s house highlights Thane’s energy issues

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Rajan Vichare, who represents Thane city, said, “Shinde is very busy with the Karnataka elections and pays no attention to Thane city. Many houses were without power for some intervals on Sunday and Monday

Thane: Chief minister Eknath Shinde’s bungalow in Thane’s Louiswadi was thrown into darkness on Monday morning due to power outage owing to a flashover in 11-KV bus coupler at a sub-station. This also affected at least 1,000 other residents in the vicinity. Vijay Singhal, managing director of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL), said, “The fault occurred in the Tarangan sub-station. This led to a prolonged power cut in the area, although the supply to the CM’s house was restored in 15 minutes.”

Thane, India - June 25, 2022: Police security beefed up outside the residence of Eknath Shinde after receiving information that his supporters and activists will gather at his residence, in Thane, Mumbai, India, on Saturday, June 25, 2022. (Praful Gangurde/HT Photo) (HT PHOTO)

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Rajan Vichare, who represents Thane city, said, “Shinde is very busy with the Karnataka elections and pays no attention to Thane city. Many houses were without power for some intervals on Sunday and Monday. The areas that had power outages were: Siddheshwar talao, Naupada, Wagle Estate, Ramchandra Nagar and Louiswadi. The MSEDCL officials are being evasive in their replies.”

A resident of Louiswadi said, “We thought that as we live in the chief minister’s neighbourhood, we will enjoy superior infrastructure. However, we woke up on Monday to no power.”

Arvind Bulbule, the superintending engineer of MSEDCL’s Thane area said, “We had to switch off the power to the CM’s house during the changeover, although he was away at the time.” Sources in state energy department said, usually, VVIP areas are spared power cuts. In Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Limited takes utmost care to ensure that Malabar Hill, which is dotted with ministerial houses, does not have power cuts.

Socio-political activist Dayanand Nene, an old Thane resident said, the suburb has been facing outages regularly for two to three hours. He blamed it on the rapid urbanisation of the area, which is putting load on MSEDCL. “I became a co-applicant in a petition in 2018 for not allowing new construction in Thane till Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) was confident about giving enough power, water and solved the solid waste management issue. At the time TMC had halted new construction for six months,” said Nene.