First rain snaps power for hours

Nashik: The first good rain this monsoon left a big portion of the city in the dark since Sunday morning as the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) network tripped.
Though the officials blamed falling of tree branches on the electricity wires for the blackouts in around 25% of areas in the city, consumers held the improper pre-monsoon work responsible for their inconvenience.
"These days, the sign of a good rain is the power supply snapping. In our area, the power went off twice around 6.45 am twice. I immediately guessed that there will be good showers today (Sundaaay). And as the day progressed, I realized I was not wrong," said Sandesh Kamble, a resident of Dhruvnagar, Gangapur Road.
Though power returned at his place after every 10 minutes, the number of interruptions was more than nine throughout the day.
The situation was in no way better in many parts of Nashik city ( see graphics) with the residents of Wadalagaon in Urban-2 division (Nashik Road) and Ravivar Karanja and Godavari areas in Urban-1 division (Nashik city area) suffering the most.
At some places, the interruptions continued for as long as three hours.
"There was no storm and yet the the supply tripped as the city received the first good rain of the season. If the MSEDCL carried out its pre-monsoon maintenance work, then why the failure was so acute?
We cannot understand why so much of trippings even as the MSEDCL saying that the trees have been trimmed," said Mahendra Powar, a resident of Upanagar.
MSEDCL officials said the failure was largely because of the branches of trees either touching or falling on the power lines. But consumer activists refused to but the theory.
"As part of pre-monsoon maintenance, the branches of trees were cut to ensure that those do not touch supply lines. But when there was no storm on Sunday, how did the branches hit the lines that are well out of the clearance areas?" asked Vilas Deole, a consumer activist.
All that the MSEDCL officials had to cite as the resons for the power failure were breakage of insulators and snapping of lines, among others.