Pune: Residents of Azadnagar in Wanowrie faced prolonged power outage lasting nearly 21 hours after a tree fell on the overhead electricity lines on SRPF grounds on Monday evening. The incident, which occurred around 5 pm on Monday, left the area without electricity supply, forcing residents to rely on inverters to meet their power needs. However, as the outage persisted till 1.
50 pm on Tuesday, many found themselves struggling to cope with the situation. The area, home to a few housing societies, a hospital, and several independent buildings, has a significant population of retired defence personnel and senior citizens, some of whom require oxygen support. Devesh Jain, a resident of Naren Hills housing society, said, "My mother requires constant oxygen support, and with such long power outage it was difficult to keep the oxygen concentrator running on inverter supply.
Apart from my mother, there are three senior residents who require oxygen support. They faced a very tough time because of the power cut." Residents of housing societies such as Kapil Woodrow, Shreshay Apartment, Akshay Classic, Manuchandra, Barkat Terrace, Aura Solace, Naren Hills, Disney Park, and other independent buildings in the area get their electricity supply from MSEDCL's Ramtekdi substation.
They said that heavy rain in the area often results in falling of trees on overhead electrical lines or transformer blast, leading to long outage. Once gone, power does not resume either for six hours or 12 hours at a stretch. Pratima Patil, a resident of Auro Solis housing society, said, "We don't have electricity half of the time, but have to pay steep electricity bills.
During the heatwave in May, we had power cuts daily. In June, the situation was slightly better, but in July we had to endure power cuts throughout the night." Kshitija Moreshwar, chairman, Naren Hills housing society, said, "We have met MSEDCL officials several times over the last few months, but they have only promised to address the problem.
There are several senior citizens and residents with medical issues who live alone in our society. Their milk gets spoilt when the fridge doesn't work for long hours, fruits and vegetables go bad. Insulin and other medicines also need proper refrigeration, which get hampered.
" Mohammed Shamin, a resident of an independent building in the area, said, "After the inverter battery ran out this morning, we could not pump water into the overhead tank. Since my wife is pregnant, we had to keep our phone charged in case there is any emergency. We have five power banks which we keep fully charged because of frequent power cuts.
" Nishikant Raut, MSEDCL spokesperson, told TOI, "Typically, MSEDCL provides power supply from an alternative source. But there was no such back feed available for this area. Senior officials have visited the area and decided to keep Lullanagar substation as an alternate source.
This will likely to be implemented in another eight days to prevent power disruption in the affected areas.".
