Irregular power supply troubles many residents

Date of Publishing in Dainik Jagran Cityplus: 2011-06-10 00:00:00.0

Residents of Sector 16-A, Vashi, who stay along Late Vasantdada Patil Marg, have been facing a lot of problems due to frequent failure of electricity for more than a year.
The residents of this road get electricity supply from two sub-stations of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL), one sub-station is situated near Visnudas Bhave Auditorium and other one is near St Lawrence High School by ring system, sharing the load through two feeder cables.
For a year, the electricity is being supplied through one feeder cable from St Lawrence High School sub-station only as since May 2010, feeder cable of sub-station near Vishnudas Bhave Auditorium has not been working properly due to technical faults and is beyond repairs. This feeder cable has been isolated at sub-station end and disconnected at Feeder Pillar Box end near post office. R Raut, a resident of Kunjali Society informed, "When we asked area engineer about this, he told us that he is waiting for new cable."
Vijay Walunj, another resident said, "During last year, the total load of this particular road was on only one feeder cable from sub-station near St Lawrence High School. This feeder cable has also developed number of faults this year and the societies namely Daulat, New Daulat, Kunjali, Nidhi, Greenfiled, Ichapurti and others on this road have been getting interrupted electricity supply. This particular feeder cable has dozens of underground joints. In three to four months, this feeder cable developed three to four faults. Number of times, residents have been forced to suffer due to single phase problem."
Walunj added, "The problem aggravated with rains last week as fumes started coming from the ground. We again were forced to run after MSEDCL officials to solve the problem. We had to stay without power for the whole night. But this time, all the residents decided not to allow the MSEDC to just make another joint and instead made them replace the whole 80-meter-long old cable which was in poor condition with a new one."
Sanjay Sawant, another resident said, "This cannot be considered as the final solution and the MSEDC must reinstate the old ring system to ensure that the residents are not forced to stay without electricity supply during monsoons. The MSEDC must provide electricity through feeder cable from sub-station near Vishnudas Bhave Auditorium by replacing the faulty 150-meter cable with a new one."
Sawant added, "It seems the MSEDCL has not done proper planning as the feeder cables were laid in 1985-86 and have not been replaced since then. The cables should be replaced for the benefit of the residents."
D R Saboo, superintending engineer, MSEDCL informed, "Monsoon's first showers led to power disruption due to minor problems at few locations, we are repairing the damages wherever found, however, there won't be any problem in the monsoons later. The said region is being taken care by executive engineer Mishra and he can only give an answer about this problem here."
However, Mishra was not available for comments.

Last year, the load of this road was on only one feeder cable from sub-station near St Lawrence High School.
— vijay walunj,A resident


—Jaspal Singh Naol