Erratic power supply in 6 Nashik city localities upsets residents

NASHIK: Over 13,000 residential, commercial and industrial consumers in six major localities of Nashik city have been facing erratic power supply since Sunday.
The duration of the power cuts ranged from three to six hours on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. While the power cuts experienced on Monday and Thursday were for shorter durations.
The residents of the area — including Ambad village, parts of Ambad MIDC, Gulmohar Colony, and Mauli Lawns — have been facing erratic power supply since Sunday, said aggrieved consumers.
On Sunday, the residents experienced a power cut from about 3 pm to 11.30 pm, while on Tuesday the duration was for three hours and on Wednesday there was no electricity between 2.30 pm and 7 pm.
“It is not the rainy season. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) just announced that there are chances of rain. We cannot believe that there could be power cuts for such long hours in a city like Nashik without the rain,” said Sangita Kulkarni, a businesswoman residing in Mauli Lawns area.
While the big establishments like hospitals had generators, the small shopkeepers and the construction sites had to shut their businesses on the three days.
When contacted, the officials from Mahadiscom (MSEDCL) and Mahatrancso (MSETCL) blamed each other for the failure of power supply to the feeder — a set of power lines and transformers — leading to citizens being affected for the period.
“We carried out patrolling to look for all possible faults, but we could not find any. There was a fault at the Mahatransco substation and, therefore, the failure,” said a senior officer from Mahadiscom.
However, the Mahatransco officials said their newly built the gas insulated substation (GIS) was under warranty period and sought the help of the engineers from the company, who set up the substation but they have denied any issue.
“The Mahadiscom will have to search for leakage in their age-old system,” said the officer.
The power supply, however, improved on Thursday after ‘relay cards’ from GIS in the Mahatransco substation were replaced.
“From Thursday after changing the cards, the situation has improved fairly. However, some other works are to be carried out and have been slated for Saturday,” the officer said.