Give nod to dig Mumbadevi CC roads to fix outage: MLA

Mumbai: Flagging frequent and lengthy power outages —sometimes lasting three days—over the past week in his constituency, Mumbadevi MLA from Congress Amin Patel has asked BMC to grant BEST special permission to excavate newly laid cement concrete (CC) roads in affected localities to replace faulty and old underground electricity cables.BMC has concretised 1,169 roads in the city since Jan 2023. Its policy does not allow CC roads to be dug up once work is completed, and utility agencies are informed before any cable laying exercise is undertaken.Seeking an exception, Patel said in a letter to additional municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar that BEST, which supplies power to island city, has resorted to using ‘jumpers’ as a temporary solution in some places in the constituency to restore power.

“While this provides short-term relief, it has led to an increase in short circuit incidents. Moreover, during the rainy season, overhead wires/jumpers may be the reason for short circuits, which can lead to untoward incidents.

“Patel said residents have been complaining of being given the short shrift despite paying their electricity dues on time. “The problem has been ongoing since last week, and people are facing major power cuts in some of the buildings for two to three days.

The only long-term solution to this problem is replacing ruptured and low-capacity underground power cables with high-capacity cables,” he said.A BEST official said they have emergency response teams that attend to crisis situations and provide alternative power supply arrangements till a permanent solution is provided. “As far as road digging is concerned, we follow strict standards —taking proper permission and also studying maps of all utilities before any cable laying work is carried out.

The permission for any road digging is the prerogative of BMC,” said the official.A senior civic official said while BMC’s policy generally prohibits the excavation of newly laid CC roads, exceptions can be made in emergency or critical public interest cases, but only after careful evaluation. “Any request to excavate CC roads for urgent utility work, especially in connection with essential services like electricity, is considered seriously.”