4-hour power outage hits Thane; thousands affected on Sunday morning

Thane: Thousands of households across several parts of Thane, including Vasant Vihar, parts of Ghodbunder Highway, Kolshet, Manpada, Majiwada and Balkum, woke up to major inconvenience Sunday morning following a snag in the power transmission lines that led to a sudden four-hour-long electricity cut.Officials said a Padgha–Kamba–Kharbav–Kolshet transmission line tripped at 6:05 AM, while another fault developed in the Wada Extra High Voltage substation, due to which the power could not be shifted to the Patalipada substation in Thane city, leading to the shutdown and disrupting supply to areas along the Ghodbunder serviced by it. Meanwhile, with morning temperatures hovering around 35°C, several residents, especially the elderly, children and the ailing, faced severe discomfort as fans and air conditioners stopped working. "Sunday is the only day we get to rest, but we woke up to this power outage that lasted for nearly five hours. It was unbearable to sleep in this heat," complained Sagar Dani, a resident of a Ghodbunder-based gated complex. The impact could have been colossal if it was a working day, feared residents, who nonetheless complained of inconvenience as the cuts impacted water supply and also grocery and food deliveries, as riders refused to climb floors in societies without backup for lifts. While the power companies failed to alert residents in time, luckily, local citizen groups like the one operated by Dr Krishna Kumar, chairman of Vasant Vihar Apex Society, filled in the void as they sent messages alerting locals of the prolonged cuts. "This helped many residents, especially elders planning to go out for morning walks, to stay back home as the operations of elevators in a few high-rises were impacted," he said. Meanwhile, the MSETCL, which arranged alternative setup in phases, managed to completely restore the supply by 11:30 AM. Naser Khan and Subhash Maskeri from Ghodbunder localities pointed out the recurring outages over the last few days, often lasting over 30 minutes, and that too without any intimation.