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70,000 Pune residents face12-hr power outage
Nearly 70,000 Wagholi residents in Pune were left without electricity for around twelve hours following a massive outage that started around 11 am on Sunday
PUNE: Nearly 70,000 Wagholi residents were left without electricity for around twelve hours following a massive outage that started around 11 am on Sunday. Businesses, household chores, exam preparation of school-going students, senior citizens, patients and others were affected due to the prolonged delay in rectifying the issue.
The Wagholi Housing Societies Association (WHSA) claimed that the current single substation is insufficient to handle the power load for the area’s 0.2 million residents and demanded that an extra-high-voltage station be built to permanently resolve the issue of sustained power outages.
According to Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL), around 950 households in the area suffered an outage on Sunday.
The WHSA members met with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who directed them to a senior MSEDCL official, after which it was revealed that a power station had been sanctioned but could not be built. However, some places were suggested for the construction of the new power substation but the project has been opposed by villagers over land issues.
Despite DyCM’s intervention, the situation on the ground remains unchanged, according to WHSA.
Apurv Gourav, a businessman, tweeted that Wagholi has been completely dark for the past 12 hours. When contacted, he said, “It is shocking that the MSEDCL authorities have not contacted any of us regarding the power outage. We only have the customer service number to call in our complaints.”
Harcharanjit Butalia, another area resident said, “My daughter had her SSC exam and since there was no power, she could not study the previous night. The inverter also failed because of no power backup. MSEDCL must immediately rectify its mistake and ensure that such blunders are not repeated,” he said.
Senior citizen Shailendra Gandhi said due to a power failure the elevator was defunct as there was no generator backup.
“It was a painful experience climbing down the stairs from the seventh floor of the building. I was left gasping for air,” he said.
Housewife Seema Panaskar said, “Power outage cause disruption in water supply and the entire household work was affected due to lack of utility water. The motors were dead as they could not pump water into the overhead tanks.”
WHSA director Sanjeev Kumar Patil said, “The power outage is due to one substation bearing the entire power load and there is an urgent need for an additional substation which handles the additional load. However, the administration must take strong and active steps to ensure that new substation is erected on a priority basis.”
In response to the incident, the MSEDCL stated, “The Wagholi area is served by the Purvarang 22/22 KV substation, which receives power from Mahatransco’s Lonikand Ultra High-Pressure Substation via MSEDCL’s Purvarang 22 KV line. Due to a failure in the Purvarang power line on Sunday at 11 am, an alternate power supply to the Purvarang sub-centre was established via the Karol-2 power line. Later that afternoon, urgent emergency repairs were performed at MSEDCL’s Lonikand High-Pressure Substation, and the power supply of all three 22 KV channels of MSEDCL was shut down from 6 to 8 pm. However, the power supply was interrupted again within half an hour due to a failure in the Wagheshwar and Karola-2 channels.”
