Pune power outage hits small scale industries

New Delhi, Feb 10 (KNN) In one of the worst power outages in many years, almost the whole of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad had to go without electricity for several hours on Wednesday, resulting in major disruptions in industrial and office work.

Industry associations said the financial impact of the outage could be in the range of Rs 300-400 crore.

The outage was caused by a technical fault in the transmission lines, which electricity officials blamed on unexpectedly cold weather and fog. “The power line supplying electricity to 400 KV high-pressure sub-stations of Lonikand and Chakan of the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (MSETCL) tripped at five places around 4.30 am,” an official statement issued by the power utility said.

Due to this technical fault, power supply was disrupted across Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune rural areas like Chakan, Wagholi and Lonikand. Full power supply could be restored only by 3.15 pm in these areas.

Due to the glitch, electricity supply to 189 sub-stations was disrupted and more than 24.18 lakh consumers were impacted.

Sandeep Belsare, President of the Small Scale Industries Association of Pimpri-Chinchwad, said more than 700 small industries in Pimpri Chinchwad had to go without power for several hours, and work suffered. 

It took almost eight hours to restore full power supply in all parts of industrial areas, resulting in one entire day’s loss of production in many places, he said.

“The total financial loss to these units is estimated to be in the range of Rs 300-400 crore,” he added. (KNN Bureau)