Rainfall over the last two days resulted in several hours of power cut in areas across the city, including Pimpri Chinchwad, on Tuesday. According to residents of Pimple Saudagar, they have been in the dark for nearly 24 hours since Monday.
“The power went out at around 4 pm on Monday and returned only on Tuesday at around 3:30 pm. It was difficult to manage things with heavy rains and no power,” said Veeresh Khanorkar, resident of Kunal Icon.
According to the Maharashtra state electricity distribution company limited (MSEDCL), the sub- station at Kunal Icon was flooded, resulting in a short circuit. The transformer was repaired only after pumping out the water once rains subsided on Tuesday evening.
Girish Tharwani, another resident of Kunal Icon, said, “It was indeed a long day with no power. Our children could not go to school and while we managed to have some drinking water, the overhead water tanks were dry with no electricity to pump water.”
Similarly, Wakad area was also shrouded in darkness with residents calling, tweeting and even tagging the MSEDCL officials to highlight their pleas.
{{/usCountry}}Similarly, Wakad area was also shrouded in darkness with residents calling, tweeting and even tagging the MSEDCL officials to highlight their pleas.
{{/usCountry}}“We face power cuts on a regular basis and our power generators are also giving away after running on full power,” said Tejaswini Sawai, a resident from Shonest towers housing society.
According to the MSEDCL officials, Wakad area gets 22 kV (kilo-volt), while the rest of Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporation (PCMC) is set up with 11 kV infrastructures that are known to be efficient. The MSEDCL officials also said that they have less manpower to work on the ground, leading to more issues.
Alok Sinha, from Aureate in Pimple Saudagar, said, “Its either no power or very low voltage with fluctuations. One day of rainfall is enough to make MSEDCL infrastructure dysfunctional.”
Meanwhile, MSEDCL was prompt in its responses over Twitter with replies, including ‘work is in progress’, ‘our team is trying to restore the supply as soon as possible’, ‘supply will be restored within 1-2 hours’ and ‘sorry for the inconvenience’.
Speaking to Shivaji Waifalkar, executive engineer, “The sub-station at Kunal Icon has some problem. Short circuit occured at the transformer after the sub-station was flooded and cables submerged under water. We had to pump water overnight to get the sub-station started. Power supply has been restored in the area.”