Power cut impacts 6,500 consumers in Peth areas

Pune: The civic body’s ongoing drainage work damaged underground feeder cables leading to a power outage affecting 6,500 consumers in Sadashiv Peth, Navi Peth, Shastri Road, SP College and Sane Gurujinagar on Friday.

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials said the incident took place around 4.15pm, although residents claimed the time was 2.30pm, at the 220 kV Navi Peth substation, where an earthmover engaged in excavation work damaged two incoming feeder cables originating from the new Parvati substation. Resultantly, supply from all eight outgoing feeders connected to the Navi Peth substation was interrupted.

“Power supply was interrupted from 2.30 pm. The entire stretch from Tilak Smarak Mandir to Maharashtra Mandal did not have electricity. We were told that supply will resume from 10.30pm,” said Kiran Lele, a resident of Sadashiv Peth.

A Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) spokesperson said the supply was expected to resume by 9.30 pm. However, the areas continued to be without power till the time of going to press.

Abhijit Kulkarni, another Sadashiv Peth resident, said he came to know about the outage when he called his parents. “The inverters stopped working two to three hours into the power cut. Several senior citizens live alone in the area and fear for their security after dark,” he added.

The outage affected around 180 transformers supplying electricity to residential and commercial areas in the localities.

“Several shopowners on Tilak Road shut early. There was no point running the business in the dark as the backup was also exhausted,” said Nachiket Kane, a resident of Tilak Road.

“We have been facing the problem of power cuts for long hours for the last two weeks. On Friday, there were some infrastructure issues which delayed the resumption of supply to our society. It impacted routine life, especially of senior citizens and those working from home,” said Ravi Deshpande, a Tilak road resident.