Colaba turns woe-laba as locals feel the heat

Cable work on in the Colaba area

It was a sweltering Sunday, March 6, evening for Colaba residents as the power went on the blink from 7 pm. Monday morning, the no electricity blues continued till the afternoon. Even as electricity returned sporadically all through Monday, locals who experienced an on-off situation, were cautious, using a condition for their exultant "it's back" communication on social media groups. They said, "it's back'' and then added, "for now". Several chats had messages that said, "it's back, hope it stays that way".

Water shortage

Ajay Multani, a resident, said, "The scale of the power outage is on a never-before level. I had to climb six floors to my home, but that was a mild discomfort compared to so many senior citizens who were marooned at home as they could not negotiate the stairs. The big problem was that we had a water shortage as the water pump stopped working." Multani claimed that he did learn that cables were damaged. "On Sunday night, many households managed with candles. If cables are damaged, then this may become a long-term problem. Then residential buildings too will have to factor that in and get generators, this is a plausible scenario," Multani explained.

Whither accountability

Subhash Motwani, a well-known Colaba resident, said, "Power was restored by Monday, March 7 afternoon, almost everywhere. However, it came back in a staggered manner, just like when it went. I have lived in Colaba for 27 years and have not seen such an outage. We have heard that excessive digging to redo the same footpaths repeatedly and dig concretised roads too has resulted in cable faults, as cables are severely damaged."

Motwani pointed to the civic authorities whom he said, "have done several unplanned diggings in the area". He claimed the work is myopic with a no-long-term understanding of its repercussions.

Motwani scoffed, "Without infrastructure in place, some leaders want to keep the city open 24 by 7. If they cannot manage a few hours competently, how will they manage 24 hours of keeping Mumbai open? Several BEST numbers were not working as they have MTNL numbers, many of which are not functioning in this area." Motwani, like several other residents, claimed this is a dubious debut for the vicinity, which went for over 15 hours without electricity. Several locals said, "This is a first, and hopefully, the last," though many seemed unconvinced about the last factor.

Troubled times

Pervez Cooper who lives in Naoshirvan Mansion, which is a four-storey building in Colaba said, "My building lift was stalled between two floors. Thankfully, the lift was not occupied. I too learnt, though the person who spoke to me did so on condition of anonymity, that constant digging of footpaths, re-doing them at the behest of I do not know which corporators, has resulted in faults at several locations because cables are damaged. There were so many senior citizens, some ill people calling me constantly, asking me to pressure somebody to get the electricity restored. It was a nightmarish experience, only cementing my belief now that this city, because of several factors, has become unliveable." Colaba is a hotel hub and several hotels had to have their generators running. "The tourists are just back though it is still a trickle, COVID-19 left the hospitality industry bleeding. We cannot afford to have any situation that will spook the just reviving tourist traffic now," said a manager.

BEST spokesperson Manoj Varade refused to comment on the accusations that repeated digging of the road and footpath had damaged cables. He stated though, "there was an interruption of electric supply due to 11 KV cable faults in the connected network". Varade's communication then detailed the numerous spots where power had tripped with timings of when it went and when it was restored.

6 Mar
Day the power outage happened in Colaba