Weekend power outages in Andheri and Borivali leave Mumbai residents sleepless
Residents in Mumbai's western suburbs, including Andheri, Borivali, Versova, and the Kastur Park area, endured sleepless nights over the weekend due to recurring power outages and supply fluctuations. The electricity disruptions occurred during a period of sweltering heat and high humidity, causing severe inconvenience to affected households.
According to a source at a power utility, the outages were linked to a year-on-year rise in the heat index. This rise in temperature and humidity led to an increase in electricity demand as residents heavily relied on air-conditioning. Because consumers did not adjust their power usage, the high load strained the local distribution network, resulting in power failures in several instances. Mumbai recently reached an all-time high peak power demand of 4,558 MW.
The outages prompted several residents to share their experiences on social media. Actress Rupali Ganguly posted early Sunday morning that her building and two adjacent buildings had been without power since the previous night. She noted that the electricity kept fluctuating before going out completely at 1:00 a.m. Ganguly also criticized the utility's automated customer service, stating that chatbots repeatedly estimated a 34-minute resolution time for over four hours, only to eventually claim there was no outage active.
Other suburban residents reported similar prolonged disruptions. A resident from Versova stated they had no electricity for an entire night, describing the situation as torture. Another Versova resident noted that recurring power cuts had been happening occasionally over the past month due to the hot and sultry weather.
In Borivali's Kastur Park, residents reported experiencing both complete power failures and power fluctuations over a two-day period. Some consumers stated that nighttime power cuts had been a recurring issue for four consecutive days without any action from utility staff. One resident called for compensation, citing the mental stress caused by three days of power failures.
Power utility companies were unavailable for comment regarding the outages.
