Up to 5-hr outage late at night sans alerts triggers outrage in island city

Mumbai: Residents in parts of island city faced prolonged power cuts from late Tuesday till the early hours of Wednesday, triggering anger over the outages and the lack of timely communication from BEST.A Worli resident said the situation became so tense that locals were forced to come out on the streets at night to demand that supply be restored. In Sion, residents reported power cuts of up to 5 hours. In Worli, the disruption was longer and more severe, with residents of Worli village saying there had been repeated outages over the last three days. The interruptions culminated in a complete blackout from about 1.20am till 6.30am on Wednesday. Parts of Marine Drive and Marine lines were also plunged into darkness at night after a power feeder tripped. BEST supplies electricity to large sections of south and central Mumbai. A source in the undertaking said the outage in Sion was due to a "local fault" in the substation, part of which reportedly caught fire, while in Worli, there was a "cable-related issue". Residents were angry over being blindsided at night. Former BEST panel member Ravi Raja, who too was affected, questioned why consumers were not informed about the reason for the outage despite BEST having customers' mobile numbers and email IDs. Residents also pointed out that they were also not given expected restoration timelines or helpline escalation mechanisms. Another resident said parts of Antop Hill lost power at midnight and supply was restored only around 5am. "Mumbai is called an international city, yet reasons for power outage are not intimated to consumers. Other utilities such as MGL convey through messages if there is disruption in supply, but this is not done by BEST," he said, calling the situation "pathetic" and urging the utility to become more consumer friendly. Dhanpal Solanki from Worli said the blackout caused "immense hardship" during summer. "Senior citizens struggled due to lack of ventilation, small children were unable to sleep and kept crying through the night, and working men and women, after returning from their daily jobs, were deprived of basic rest," he said. Solanki alleged that the repeated outages were linked to illegal constructions in the area, which he claimed were putting pressure on local infrastructure.