Powerless in face of rain god's fury

Outages across city; water-logging, fallen trees block roads

Au00a0storm again lashed the city yesterday afternoon, bringing heavy showers and uprooting trees and electricity poles at a number of places.
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Power lines snapped at many places in and around Shivajinagar, Kothrud, Pimpri and Bhosari after the storm began at 3.30 pm, marking the second consecutive day of pre-monsoon showers throwing the city out of gear.

Many places in the city did not have power for over five hours. The affected areas were FC road, Model Colony, Wadarwadi, Ashok Nagar, Bhosle Nagar, Police Ground and Gokhale Nagar. Other areas affected were Aundh, Baner, Bavdhan, Balewadi, Paud Road, Kachara Depot, Kaspate Wasti and Sanghvi.

Prahsant Jaiswal, a student residing at Sus-Pashan road, said, "After the rain, we saw fallen trees on Sus-Pashan road, near NCL and Sai Chowk. From 5.45 pm, electric supply has been on and off, and even at 10 pm we were still in darkness."

A Viman Nagar resident said, "We had a power cut last night also. That was from 3.30 am to 6.30 am. And at 9.35 pm it was gone again."

A Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) source said, "The number of consumers who are in the dark is 1.5 lakh."

According to the MSEB Pune Chief Engineer S P Nag Tilak, there were power cuts because of the unusual rain. "Ninety per cent of the power has been restored, and work is on to fix the rest of the problem soon."