19 June,2015 06:22 PM IST | | Shashank Rao
Some parts of Mumbai were plunged into darkness since this morning after BEST and Rinfra shutting down six substations in the areas as a precautionary measure
At a time when Mumbai enjoys 24 hour power supply, few parts of Mumbai were left in darkness due to water logging. The major power distributors of BEST and Reliance Infra had to cut electricity supply to prevent electrocution.
In the island city - between Colaba and Sion/Mahim - BEST decided to cut supply at four to five locations. Sources said that they cut supply at Backbay, Antop Hill, Pratiksha Nagar and cut off the substations.
"We had to disconnect supply as water level had crossed 3 feet at these locations," said a BEST official. The substations is normally shut down after water level rises in these areas.
Meanwhile, Reliance Infra distribution area in suburbs also witnessed water logging at few locations in its distribution area. Rinfra customers at Chunabhatti, Kurla, Juhu, Kalina and Kandivali experienced power cuts.
"Only 5 substations, out of 6200 plus substations have been kept off," said a Rinfra official. Normalcy will be restored only once water levels recede and after safety inspection.
There were individual complaints of fuse blown, and other technical problems too.
"We have shut down six substations in some parts of Mumbai as a precautionary measure to avoid any untoward incident," BEST Deputy PRO Manoj Varade said today.
He said the substations in areas of Colaba, Cuffe Parade, Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar, Punjabi Colony (Sion), Bhendi Bazaar, Opera House have been shut since this morning.
"Due to heavy and incessant rains in the city since yesterday, there are possibilities of water logging in these areas. If we operate the transformers in such a condition, the chances of them getting damaged are high, which may result in complete disruption of power supply. Therefore, to avoid this, we decided to shut down these substations," he said.
When asked when will the operations in these substations resume, Varade said, "It depends on the rains. If it continues to rain heavily, we might have to keep them shut for few more hours."
Meanwhile, power supply in certain areas in Dadar and nearby areas in Central Mumbai has also been disrupted since morning. "Electric supply has been disrupted since 5 am. We have been trying to contact the BEST control room, but we are not getting any response from them," Rahul Deshmukh, a resident from Prabhadevi said.
Varade said it would take some time to resolve the problem, as many BEST employees have not been able to reach their offices due to heavy rains.
"We are receiving many complaints since morning about power supply disruption. But many employees have not been able to reach their offices as the train services on all the three lines--western, central and harbour--were shut due to water logging on railway tracks. However, we are trying to send our teams to fix the problems. But this might take some time," he added.
(With Agency inputs)
