Sporadic power outages give residents sleepless nights, MSEDCL rues absence of ducts along streets in PMC limits

Pune: For bank professional Nilabh Kashyap and his family, Monday night was a waking nightmare. Returning home late to his NIBM Annexe residence, Kashyap found his wife and two children sitting in total darkness amid a prolonged power outage.

“The electricity went off around 8pm. I was exhausted, and the children were restless because of the sweltering heat,” Kashyap said. “Even the emergency lights ran out of charge. We sat helplessly until power was finally restored at 11.30pm.”

However, the ordeal didn’t end there. Power continued to fluctuate throughout the night. “None of us could sleep. By morning, my wife and I were tired and irritable,” he told TOI.

Across Pune, residents are grappling with similar sudden and prolonged outages as the city swelters under high humidity. MSEDCL (Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited) officials have attributed the crisis to a spike in underground cable faults caused by rising temperatures. They also pointed fingers at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) for failing to provide dedicated utility ducts, claiming that repairs in Pune take significantly longer than in PCMC areas, where such infrastructure exists.

The frustration reached a boiling point on Tuesday. In the NIBM Annexe area, supply remained erratic well into the afternoon. “Since noon, the power has been tripping every 15 minutes. It returns for five minutes and goes off again,” said Rahul Adadh, a resident of Raheja Vista Housing Society. “This can damage expensive electronic appliances. We are allowed to work from home, but how can we work under these conditions?”

Adadh also slammed the utility’s communication. “The MSEDCL helpline is a joke; nobody answers,” he added. While an MSEDCL engineer claimed a technical fault at the Phursungi substation had been resolved, residents reported that the situation remained unstable.

The outcry has spilled onto social media. Sarabjit Kumar, a resident of Pisoli, noted that his area has faced random 4-hour cuts daily for a week. In Lohegaon’s Santnagar, residents reported a total blackout starting at 10 am on Monday with no response to tweets or complaints. In Manjri, resident Durga Bisoi complained of frequent cuts lasting several hours with no permanent solution in sight. Some angry citizens even targeted Pune MP Murlidhar Mohol, accusing elected representatives of failing to secure basic civic amenities.

According to an MSEDCL spokesperson, Pune’s electricity demand has surged. In 2024-25, the average daily demand was 51.6 million units; this year, it has jumped to 54.5 million. The spike is even more dramatic month-on-month: consumption rose from 54 million units in Feb to 64.1 million units in March.

The utility maintains that the city’s infrastructure cannot keep up — not because of supply, but because of repair hurdles. “Many roads in the PCMC area have dedicated utility ducts, which reduce repair time. Pune city lacks this,” the spokesperson said. “Every time we dig for repairs, the PMC charges us Rs6,000 per metre. We have requested that the 32 new roads planned by the PMC include utility ducts on both sides to prevent delays.”