Several SoBo buildings went without power till afternoon on Aug 6

Colaba police's van was crushed under a fallen tree. Pic/ Ashish Rane

Apart from heavy rain, SoBo residents had to contend with hours-long power cuts that continued till Thursday afternoon in some areas and interrupted phone and WiFi services throughout Wednesday.

Jeroo Buhariwala

While in some areas, power supply was affected by tree falls, in others, the electricity was cut to avoid mishaps. "In our colony, electricity was restored at 3 am on Thursday," said Jeroo Buhariwala, resident of Cusrow Baug and a member of the Colaba Residents and Shopkeepers' Association. "The electricity was cut around 8 pm on Wednesday. In the surrounding buildings and colonies such as Lalit building, Badhwar Park, Sohrab Bharucha Road, Colaba Causeway, Merryweather road, it was restored by 10 or 11 pm. We understood the difficulties faced by the maintenance workers and the civic body as we could hear their phones constantly ringing when we called with issues."

Ramona Dhavan

A resident of Merryweather Road, Ramona Dhavan from the Clean Colaba Heritage Group, said, "Different buildings are connected to separate electricity sub-stations. Which is why every building was affected for different periods of time."

Also Read: Mumbai Rains: BMC chiefs change, excuse for city's flooding doesn't

MTNL services were down

Another Colaba resident, Haresh Hathiramani, had to deal with damaged phone lines and interrupted MTNL WiFi service. "MTNL services are hugely affected. Even after approaching all possible points to register complaints, they are deaf and blind to our predicament. All of Colaba Causeway faces issues with MTNL," said Hathiramani.

Metro work to blame

Harshita Narwekar, the local corporator, said, "We cut the power supply for many buildings at lower levels as the areas were flooded. The civic body worked throughout the night for the welfare of residents." She blamed the flood on the ongoing Metro construction. "I am for Metro but the consequences are clear. Authorities were pumping out water from the Metro sites."

Also Read: Mumbai first in the list of top ten rainiest cities in last 24 hours

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