Pune: A major fire at MSETCL’s 220-kV substation in Chinchwad around 12.25 pm on Sunday caused widespread power disruption for over 3 lakh consumers and forced Maha Metro to suspend operations on the PCMC-Swargate corridor for 22 minutes.Maha Metro, in a statement, stated that all eight trains operating on the corridor were halted at platforms for nearly 22 minutes, and the services were restored only around 12:47 pm, after the 25-kV OHE power supply for Line 1 was restored from the Vanaz (VNZ) substation.“During the technical disruption, continuous announcements regarding the delay were made at all Metro stations along the route and inside the trains. As a safety precaution, all eight trains operating on the route were halted at the platforms. At 1:50 pm, the main power supply to the Range Hills substation from MSEDCL was restored,” the statement read.The fire led to outages for consumers from Pimpri Chinchwad and Shivajinagar of Pune city and key industrial areas in Chakan MIDC and Talegaon MIDC.According to MSEDCL, the incident occurred after an explosion in a 22-kV current transformer and breaker at the Chinchwad substation. This affected several 22-kV high-voltage lines. This interrupted supply to nearly 1,500 industrial units in Chakan and Talegaon MIDCs was disrupted between 12:25 and 4:20 pm.Dattatraya Chaskar, senior inspector of Chinchwad police station, said the area was declared a sensitive zone even after the fire was brought under control, and people were barred from approaching the site.A senior MSEDCL official said the power disruption affected around 2.6 lakh consumers across parts of Pimpri Chinchwad, including Chinchwad Gaon, Pradhikaran, Ravet, Kalewadi, Wakad, Pimple Gurav, Pimple Nilakh, Sangvi, Punawale and Tathawade.Another 50,000 consumers in parts of Shivajinagar were also affected after the fault temporarily disrupted a 132-kV line between Rahatani and Ganeshkhind originating from the Chinchwad substation. This resulted in a power outage in parts of Shivajinagar, including Aundh, Ganeshkhind, Senapati Bapat Road, Shivajinagar Gaothan, Model Colony and the Bal Gandharva area.While supply to Shivajinagar was restored around 1.50 pm, the supply in some other areas was restored by 3 pm. “However, power supply was taking slightly longer to be restored in areas including Nigdi, Yamunanagar, Bijalinagar, Ravet, Mamurdi, Dehu Road, Chinchwad, Tathawade and Wakad. Around 1.25 lakh consumers in these areas were likely to have to wait longer,” MSEDCL said.“MSETCL officials have been working to restore supply from the unaffected portions of the substation, while MSEDCL teams were using alternative power supply routes to restore electricity to the affected areas at the earliest,” said a statement by Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (MSETCL).A senior MSEDCL official said every substation operated by MSEDCL and MSETCL is equipped with firefighting systems. “Such blazes could not be doused by pouring water; specialised equipment and trained personnel are required,” he said. The teams at the site immediately swung into action and brought the fire under control. No casualties or injuries were reported.The disruption also affected Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s water supply network, with civic officials halting water distribution until power supply was restored.Sandesh Kumar, a Ravet resident, said, “Since the PCMC supplied water on alternate days, Sunday was our scheduled day for water supply when the outage occurred. We contacted civic officials, who informed us that the water supply would be restored only after the power supply was resumed.”All power supply from the 220 kV extra-high-voltage substation at Chinchwad was restored at 10.57pm on Sunday. This marked a sporadic disruption of over 10 hours.
