Anil seeks 24 hrs time to restore power in Mumbai

A day after the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commissiom (MERC) and the state revenue department issued notices to Reliance Energy Ltd ...

A day after the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commissiom (MERC) and the state revenue department issued notices to Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) on causing ‘‘public inconvenience’’, REL Chairman Anil Ambani promised to restore ‘‘power in the next 12 to 24 hours’’ in the affected parts of Mumbai, provided his engineers could access and work on the 97 transformers located in waterlogged areas.

In his first public appearence after the 944 mm deluge, Ambani also announced a Rs 100 crore disaster management plan to cope with such situations.

REL, which supplies power to a 384 sq km area in Mumbai, is at the receiving end for its inability to restore electricity supply for over a week now in waterlogged areas.

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Accepting that the ‘‘complexity of coming back to normal was underestimated’’, Ambani said efforts were on to restore power in 21,000 homes, which were still in darkness. He said, ‘‘We will be giving three ‘progress statements’ everyday to the chief minister, energy minister, chief secretary and MERC.’’

He added that REL had also appealed to the Army and the state to help restore power by providing generators and the required equipment. ‘‘We have mobilised around 300 engineers from within and will get technical help from MSEB, Tata and BEST. Another 125 engineers are coming in from Surat and Ahmedabad as back up,’’ he said.

Asked for his view on the demand for the arrest of Reliance officials from certain quarters, he said: ‘‘I am available.’’

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