10 days on, 1.17 lakh families in flood-hit Maharashtra face power cuts

On Wednesday, state energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said they are planning to restore the power supply by August 15.

More than 1.17 lakh families in the flood-hit areas of Sangli, Kolhapur and Satara are still waiting for their power supply to be restored, 10 days after it was disconnected following waterlogging.

More than 1.17 lakh families in the flood-hit areas of Sangli, Kolhapur and Satara are still waiting for their power supply to be restored. (Abhinav Saha/Hindustan Times)

On Wednesday, state energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said they are planning to restore the power supply by August 15.

More than 3.90 lakh families were affected by the power outage, following massive floods in parts of western Maharashtra on August 5. The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL), also known as Mahavitaran, disconnected the supply in flood-hit areas.

Around 2,625 transformers and thousands of power meters were damaged owing to waterlogging for more than a week.

“We have been able to restore the power connection of more than 2.73 lakh families since water started receding in the past few days. For this, 50 teams, comprising 500 personnel, have been working 24x7,” the energy minister said.

With the help of the Army, Navy, coastguard, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), the state government has rescued more than 6 lakh people from the affected areas.

“Our teams are ready to restore power connection for the remaining families, but we have to wait for water to recede as some areas are inaccessible owing to waterlogging,” Bawankule said.

He also said the power meters will be replaced by Mahavitaran and no money will be charged on the consumers. “The consumers will also be given an extra month to pay their pending power bills,” he said. On waiving of power bills of the farmers, the energy minister said there is no such demand made by them.