Residents of suburban Moshi blame discom for power cuts; officials point to shortages of funds, staff
Frequent power cuts have become part and parcel of the lives of the residents of Indrayaninagar and other areas along Spine Road of Moshi Pradhikaran. Residents and local representatives lay the blame at the doorstep of the power supply company which they say have refused to fix the long-standing problems in these areas.
Manoj Singh, a resident of Sector 10, said that power supply was being disrupted for 2-3 hours on alternate days. тАЬEvery Thursday we have the scheduled load-shedding, which is understandable. What we fail to understand is the unscheduled power cuts on weekdays,тАЭ he said. Singh said the residents had tried contacting the helpline numbers over the outages but failed to get any response.
Spine Road and the adjacent sectors are mostly residential with old bungalows co-existing with new residential societies. Given its proximity to the Bhosari and Chakan industrial areas, the area has witnessed an influx of residents, with Moshi and its surrounding areas identified among the fastest growing suburbs of Pune by surveys.
Residents like Singh, however, say the erratic power supply has become a major problem for them. At least twice or thrice a week, there are unscheduled power cuts. In some societies, residents say the problem is тАЬperennialтАЭ. This is true both of the main supply lines and the transformers drawing power from these lines. In 2020 a transformer burst in the area, killing two people.
Local representatives have had meetings with the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited but a permanent solution has evaded the area. Seema Savale, local corporator and former standing committee chairman of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, said she had conducted multiple meetings with the officers but nothing concrete has happened. тАЬWe have found that the response given to the problems is not adequate. The office lacks people who can take responsibility and solve the problems,тАЭ she said.
The discomтАЩs officials say various factors need to be considered. While there are barely 165 linemen, there is a funds crunch too. With around 3.20 lakh consumers, the Bhosari division is among the biggest in the Pune zone. The division spans from Ravet to Talawade Dehu to Dighi and Chinchwad to Moshi. However, at least 1.20 lakh consumers do not pay their bill on time, and arrears have reached Rs 46 crore.
тАЬConsumers do not pay bills for more than one and a half months and then arrears keep mounting. We have no choice but to take up a massive disconnection drive,тАЭ an official said, adding that lack of immediately available material is also a concern.
Some underground cables are тАЬextremelyтАЭ old and have developed problems in certain areas. For instance, Palghare Vasti is among the six-seven locations reporting persistent cable complaints. Officials also say long cables (more than 160 ft) are not immediately available, adding that road widening often damage cables but such damage is not immediately identified.
The division has around 3,200 transformers, some of which are overloaded.
