Several areas in Alandi face six-hour power cut

PUNE: Several pockets in the temple town of Alandi, about 25km from Pune, have been reeling under power failure for the past few weeks.

With the monsoon set to being, residents pointed out that the situation may become worse if the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) does not take corrective measures at the soonest. Residents claimed that they have been facing power cuts that last as long as five to six hours on a daily basis.

Lawyer Vilas Kate, who has been following up on this issue with the MSEDCL, told TOI, “Despite registering complaints repeatedly, the electricity distribution company does not act quickly. We don’t know the exact reason that is causing this situation.”

Kate further added that the summer months see a constant flow of visitors as there are several marriage halls and dharamshalas in the area. “People also come to visit Sant Dnayneshwar Maharaj Temple daily. They prefer to stay at dharamshalas, but this year they too had it tough time due to disruption in power supply,” he stated

Another local resident Amol Abhang said, “The MSEDCL officials should visit some pockets like Padmavati road and Markal road that are the worst affected.”

According to the MSEDCL officials, Alandi has 15,000 electricity connections that require about 240 amperes power, which comes from the adjacent village node.

“Since we were carrying out repair works on the electricity lines, replacement of old transformer and pruning of dangerous tree branches, we had to cut power supply for a few hours on a daily basis for the past two weeks,” said a senior MSEDCL official at Alandi.

Assistant engineer Subhash Patil added, “We have a team of 13 electricians and they are working in three shifts to resolve consumer complaints. In the last two days, they had a tough time as there were several complaints related to power failure, mainly due to rain.”

Meanwhile, an official from the Alandi Municipal Council said, “The town’s population is increasing rapidly and the MSEDCL needs to have more manpower to provide quality service to the residents.”