Wakad residents left in the dark due to 30-hour power cut

Various localities in Wakad experienced prolonged power cuts over the weekend, prompting some residents to take a decision to protest outside the Sanghavi division of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) office on July 22.

Around 75 residents of various housing societies in Wakad gathered at the Maxima housing society between 11 am to 2 pm on Sunday and demanded quick restoration of electricity in the area. They also want a permanent solution for the frequent power cuts in Wakad. KCGarg,chairman of the Eden cooperative housing society and a member of the Pimpri-Chinchwad cooperative housing society, which has around 45,000 residents from 90 societies, said, “This prolonged power cut started on the evening of July 14 (Friday). It lasted for more than 30 hours. We are facing frequent problems of power cuts. We have complained to the officials but no response, hence, we planned a meeting with the MSEDCL officials’’. “There was water shortage and basic gadgets like geyser, water purifier and refrigerator stopped functioning because of the power cut, causing great inconvenience to us on the weekend,” he added. Residents claimed that the power was cut off from Friday evening and the supply was restored only on Sunday morning and in some areas it is yet to be restored.

Prakash Naiknavare, assistant engineer, MSEB, said, “I had taken charge of this area 15 days ago. The area is new to me and hence, it is taking time to overcome the problem. The feeder system which provides power supply to Wakad had failed because of over moisturing. We generally face problems of over moisturing in the rainy season. We tried to restore power supply to most of the areas and will restore supply to the rest of the areas too.” To avoid this moisture problem, we already installed 17 RMU (Ring Main Unit) and will install 30 more in upcoming days, he added.

Vidya Sarangapani, a resident of Maxima society, said, “We are facing frequent power cuts since the last eight years, MSEB gives a number of excuses every time and the feedback from the MSEB customer care is also too late.” There are also problems like low voltage power supply, inflated bill amount but no any official from the MSEB is ready to solve any issue, she added.

Wakad has two feeders (Wakad road, Jagtap Dairy) on which there are 62,000 active power connections. For such a large number of connection, MSEB has only 24 employees working in three shifts with only one van ladder.