Koregaon Park area residents see red over frequent power outages

PUNE: Residents of the Koregaon park area - especially the north, south and Mangaldas road – are miffed due to daily power outages lasting anywhere between five minutes and one hour since January 2021 that are frequently throwing their life and work out of gear

PUNE: Residents of the Koregaon park area - especially the north, south and Mangaldas road – are miffed due to daily power outages lasting anywhere between five minutes and one hour since January 2021 that are frequently throwing their life and work out of gear.

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According to residents, not only power outages that last longer but even those that take place for a shorter duration of time disrupt things like wifi, laptops, desktop computers and other electrical appliances. So much so, that a Whatsapp group comprising the residents and Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) officials has been formed to address the problem. Notwithstanding, power outages continue to occur frequently, the residents pointed out.

Sathi Nair, a resident and member of the Koregaon park mohalla committee, ward number 21, said, “We were facing this issue earlier as well but the frequency of power outages has increased since last month. The problem has become severe. The daily lives of residents are getting impacted because of this problem. Because of the pandemic, many are working from home. Power outages have become a serious issue in their professional lives as well. For us, it is really annoying because power gets cut-off unexpectedly at any time…”

Some residents claimed that their electrical appliances have suffered damage due to fluctuations in power supply, not to mention the additional expenditure of electricity generators that housing societies have had to endure.

Ashutosh Nanda, a resident of Koregaon park, said, “My refrigerator turned inoperative because of this issue. We have constantly written to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) regarding this problem but it has not been resolved. Officials keep giving inexcusable explanations for the problem. We have been paying our bills on time, that too for frequently interrupted power supply!”

Asked about the problem faced by residents, MSEDCL officials claimed that power outage issues can occur during the rainy season. “Power outage may happen if it is raining or the mainline trips. It cannot be denied that power outages do occur but they are not all that frequent. I will have to collect more data on how many times outages have occurred,” said Satish Kulkarni, additional executive engineer, Wadia sub-division, Pune MSEDCL.