Irate consumers attack power firm

Irate consumers, who have been protesting against prolonged power cuts of 3 to 13 hours, burnt and ransacked offices and attacked employees of the state power company Mahavitaran in the past two days.

Irate consumers, who have been protesting against prolonged power cuts of 3 to 13 hours, burnt and ransacked offices and attacked employees of the state power company Mahavitaran in the past two days.

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Consumers in Kanjurmarg, Bhandup, Mulund, Thane, Navi Mumbai pay more for uninterrupted supply under ‘no-power-cut’ scheme. Mahavitaran has been unable to supply uninterrupted power to areas such as the eastern suburbs like Kanjurmarg, Bhandup, Mulund and satellite cities like Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivli and Vasai-Virar-Nalasopara. The company is facing a shortage of 4000 mega watts against the demand of 16,000MW.

Mahavitaran blamed the strike at Coal India, which supplies most of the coal to the state, for the shortage. The state company Mahagenco usually gets 24 rakes (goods trains) of coal every day but in the past three weeks it got only 11-12 rakes per day, said a state government statement on Monday. Also, some generation units are under scheduled annual maintenance work, it said.

Mahavitaran spokesperson said it would take another week to restore normalcy. “Our power generation companies are buying coal from all possible sources,” he said.