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Under fire from angry citizens, the Maharashtra government on Monday turned the heat on Reliance Energy and set a deadline for the company to resume power supply to several areas in the suburbs, which remained blacked out for the last four days.
In another move, the state electricity regulatory commission on Monday served notices on all power distribution licensees in Mumbai -- Reliance Energy, Tata Power, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company and the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking -- asking them to explain the loss of service in their respective consumer lines and the efforts undertaken to restore normalcy in services.
The Maharashtra State Electricity Board chairman had been camping at the REL office for the last two days.
In a late evening statement, Reliance Energy said sixteen feeders of the company were shut down as per a directive of the state government for human safety and to avoid casualty.
The company also said that the power situation had improved in Kurla, Kalina and Sakinaka areas. "In these areas, 80 per cent of power coverage is working. REL had 4,058 transformer stations of which only 113 were not working. More than 73 of these were in waterlogged areas," the statement said. REL had a total 24 lakh (2.4 million) customers of whom 23.56 lakh (2.3 million) had power since the last two days, the company said.
REL on Monday suffered a further setback in its distribution services with over 150 sub-stations having to be switched off. The company, however, declined, for the moment, the offer of assistance by Tata Power. A REL spokesperson said the utility was taking steps to restore normalcy in services as soon as possible.
Confirming the notices, chairman of Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission Pramod Deo said: "We have issued notices to all the distribution licensees today to file written affidavits by Tuesday evening on the number of failures of service they experienced, the time taken for restoration of normal service and the strategy employed by them to get things back to normalcy. The hearing will be held on Wednesday morning."
Maharashtra's Energy Minister, Dilip Walse Patil, said the situation on REL's distribution network had worsened since Sunday. REL, however, has told the state government that it was advised by the state police authorities to switch off transformers to prevent human electrocutions.
A senior government official said that it would take REL at least another three to four days to restore complete normalcy.
Patil added that REL had intimated the government that an additional 26 feeder station and 150 transformers (read sub-stations) had been switched off on Monday.
"Today, some more regions of Mumbai are expected to suffer from blackouts owing to the power problems being faced by REL. In fact, the state government has deployed manpower from the Maharashtra State Electricity Board and also asked TPC and BEST to assist REL in achieving normalcy in its power distribution services," Patil said.
While TPC serviced areas in Mumbai were not adversely impacted by power cuts and blackouts in the aftermath of the Tuesday deluge, REL had been hard pressed to bring its services back on stream with regions of Kurla, Andheri, Kandivali and Borivali impacted by power shortages.