MSEB takes load off cricket fans

PUNE, May 3: Finally, here is some good news for cricket-crazy fans in city. And it comes from an unlikely quarter, the Maharashtra State...

PUNE, May 3: Finally, here is some good news for cricket-crazy fans in city. And it comes from an unlikely quarter, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board MSEB. The cricket enthusiasts may now rest assured that nothing, even the weekly load-shedding which are normally carried out on Mondays and Thursdays, will deprive them of watching the telecast of the World Cup cricket matches.

In a heartening move, the MSEB has decided to implement minimum load-shedding in May and June so that the cricket fans would be able to watch the telecast of the matches without any interruption. Instead, top officials of the MSEB have decided to leave it to the conscious of the consumers to consider alternate ways of curtailing the consumption of the power.

8220;Every attempt will be made to ensure uninterrupted power supply during the World Cup matches. All efforts would be made to deal with the break downs on war-footing so that the power does not go off for a prolonged period. However, the people can contribute in reducing the load by resorting to minimum use of their consumption and by convincing the subscribers having commercial connection to use power as less as possible,8221; Chief Engineer for Pune Circle of the MSEB A P Shinde told this newspaper.

Normally, load-shedding are carried out in various parts of the city and its rural outskirts between 6 pm and 10 pm on Mondays. There is no fixed timing for load-shedding on Thursdays.

The MSEB decided to do away with the load-shedding schedules after they noticed that 8220;cricket just happens to be the most popular sport in the country and interrupting the power supply while the matches are on would be spoilsport.8221;

The top MSEB officials have started working out on a specific strategy to provide uninterrupted power supply as long as the World Cup tournaments went on after the district guardian minister Pramod Navalkar approved their idea of carrying out minimum load shedding during a recent meeting in Pune.

As per the schedule, a total of seven matches are to be played on Mondays and Thursdays in the months of May and June.

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Among them seven matches are: 1 New Zealand vs Bangladesh 8211; May 17, 1999, 2 Pakistan vs Scotland 8211; May 20, 3 West Indies vs New Zealand 8211; May 24, 4 West Indies vs Scotland 8211; May 27, 5 Australia vs Bangladesh 8211; May 27, 6 Group A I vs Group B III 8211; June 10 and 7 Second Semi Final 8211; June 17.