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Frequent power failures force Wakad residents to invest in inverters
Mayank Shrivastava, a resident of Royal Oak Society in Wakad, has had to invest in an inverter after facing several consecutive days, and nights, of no power in his area
Mayank Shrivastava, a resident of Royal Oak Society in Wakad, has had to invest in an inverter after facing several consecutive days, and nights, of no power in his area. “We have been facing problems since the Covid-19 lockdown when there would be no electricity for 24 hours or more many times. Even after the lockdown, we are not getting proper electricity supply and there are nonstop fluctuations. So much so, we have started relying upon the inverter to run things,” Shrivastava said.
Similarly, Bhaskar Gaikwad, a resident of Shivam Majestic, Choudhary Park, Wakad, is beginning to lose patience after having repeatedly raised the issue with the MSEDCL with no success. “We, the residents of Wakad, are facing frequent power failures. MSEDCL officials are not giving us any concrete reason for the same nor are they helping us in any way. There are power failures at least five to six times during the day. We have many senior citizens and children in the society and they suffer a lot when they have to go without electricity and the internet,” Gaikwad said.
Like Shrivastava and Gaikwad, residents of a majority of societies in Pimple Gurav, Pimple Nilakh and Wakad in wards H, G and D of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation have been facing power cuts and fluctuations on a daily basis for the past several months. They, too, have come to rely heavily upon inverters with the societies spending more than Rs10,000 daily on diesel. “These power outages are becoming more frequent as we have no power nearly every other day. When there is no electricity for three to four hours, it becomes difficult to carry out daily chores and manage work, said Anilkumar Rao.
Meanwhile, MSEDCL official and deputy engineer, D R Balgude, said, “There have been minor incidents in various wards where there is no power for short periods of time. However when it rains, power fluctuations are high in some areas of the G and H wards. Sometimes, electric cables are cut or destroyed during the PMC’s ongoing road work. “The officials don’t keep us in the loop whenever they are beginning some road work which is why such incidents take place,” said Balgude.
