As if it is not Maha Metro’s task to protect power network, water supply lines!!
| Date :03-Jun-2019 |
The spot where 33KV Binaki feeder was damaged by Maha Metro affecting power supply to over 30,000 consumers in September 2018.
By Dheeraj Fartode:
Mistakes are meant for repeating not for learning for the Maha Metro as the agency is damaging underground power networks and water supply lines every new day. Thousands of power consumers faced power outages, power supply companies lost their units, spent lakhs of rupees for repair works and million litres of water were wasted when Maha Metro was digging the roads for erecting pillars for overhead train tracks. The Maha Metro’s excavators have been damaging power infrastructure continuously across the city for the last three years.
The piling machine of Maha Metro which damaged 33 KV Kamptee Road feeder on November 2018. (R) Excavator of Maha Metro’s contractor which damaged 11 KV Jai Durga Feeder and disrupted power supply of over 8,000 households in Narendra Nagar and Manish Nagar last month.As per the records, the Maha Metro has damaged power infrastructure 76 times so far and has continued to repeat the mistakes as if it has the license to break anything anywhere with no moral qualms. Checking maps of underground power network and water networks with the help of officials of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL), Spanco Nagpur Discom Ltd (SNDL) and Orange City Waters (OCW) and carrying out work accordingly was the most simple and effective way to keeping the networks intact. However, the Maha Metro officials have had no time for it. This constant wrongful -- and I-care-a-damn -- activity shows a we-can-do-anything attitude among the top officials of Maha Metro as they do not want to work in tandem with with other government agencies working in parallel domains. Out of 76 damages to power network, 40 were reported in SNDL area.
Re-jointing work of power cable.
Power supply to 2,60,958 households in the city was snapped for several hours after power cables were damaged by the Maha Metro. The SNDL had spent Rs 1,61,66,825/- for repairing of cables and recorded losses of 1,51,293 units of power. On December 25, 2017, a total of 920 households only in the Manewada area faced power outages for more than 15 hours after an 11-KV Railways Feeder was damaged by the Maha Metro. Another incident was reported in Mankapur area when an excavator of Maha Metro damaged an 11-KV Fire College Feeder on March 3, 2018.
Electricity supply to 10,496 power consumers in Mankapur area was snapped for more than three hours after the incident. In Lashkaribagh area, an 11-KV Kamal Chowk Feeder was damaged by Maha Metro while carrying out digging work. It resulted in disruption of electric supply to 7,219 households for more than five hours on May 18 last year. Within a month after the Kamal Chowk mess-up, the Maha Metro damaged a 33-KV Mayo Feeder affecting power supply to 12,646 residential establishments of the Gandhibagh area on June 23 last year.
On August 23, 2018, the Maha Metro damaged a 33-KV Binaki Feeder and affected power supply to 20,821 households for more than three hours. In a recent incident, an 11-KV Jai Durga Feeder was damaged by the Maha Metro disrupting electrical supply to 5,905 homes in Narendra Nagar and Manish Nagar areas for more than an hour on May 6 this year. In MSEDCL’s area, the Maha Metro damaged power cables for 36 times between March 2016 and May 2019. A total of 81,139 households were left without power for several hours due to the damage.
Similarly, water supply lines also faced the brunt of Maha Metro’s digging work. A total of 25 million litres of water was wasted in three major incidents. Guardian Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule had issued directives to Maha Metro in the year 2017 when a large number of power cables were damaged during the Maha Metro digging work. In his circular, Bawankule had directed Maha Metro to examine properly the maps of underground power network and coordinate with MSEDCL. However, the Maha Metro authorities do not seem to have found time and inclination to the Minister’s directives. They just continued the digging work without bothering about their part of the larger social responsibility -- as if they operate in a vacuum, as if they have nothing to do with the mandated tasks of other official service-providers, as if they have nothing to do with the people.