Pune: Wagholi residents have started an online petition against recurrent power outages, minor problems to major faults and “unresponsive” MSEDCL staff in the area.Residents said that although was under the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), it relied on feeder services from Lonikand, which was 10km away. This led to frequent faults mainly because of digging works, followed by the MSEDCL staff’s delayed repairs.They said that in most societies, children got stuck in lifts frequently and senior citizens avoided walks for the same reason. It adversely impacted the large number of people working from home. Additionally, each society spent a large amount of money to buy diesel for generators.Resident Siraj Dokadia told TOI: “Residents face daily power cuts, frequent voltage fluctuations and unplanned outages. This damages appliances and disrupts work, studies and daily life. Wagholi receives power from a distant substation and sits at the tail end of the network — leading to low voltage and overload issues.”He said MSEDCL had taken steps like adding feeders and manpower, but it was falling short of the area’s rapid urban growth. “The power is supplied from the Pune rural circle designed for low-density, agricultural regions. Resultantly, though Wagholi is a high-density urban zone under PMC, it struggles with low priority in funding, staff and infrastructure upgrades. In contrast, the situation in nearby areas of Vimannagar and Kharadi is more reliable — with stronger infrastructure and faster response systems — since the neighbourhoods are under urban divisions,” he added.Another area resident, Rameez Tamboli, said their main request was to move Wagholi from rural to the urban grid for better service and faster resolution of problems. “We have sent innumerable emails to the state power minister, but nothing has happened. If Wagholi gets included in the urban circle, the power demand will be met and frequent outages will cease.”There was no improvement in the power infrastructure over the last 10 years, even though the population had increased exponentially — putting extreme load on existing structures, said residents.“We have recurrent power cuts. MSEDCL has promised to streamline the supply, but to no effect. My son is an IT professional. The power often fails when he is on call with international clients. It takes a few seconds for the inverter to kick in, but important seconds are lost. Big societies spend around Rs1 lakh on power generators. It is scary to imagine what will happen during the monsoon. Also, in many places, there is no back feeding of power — which means if there is an outage, there is no supply from anywhere else,” said Sanjeev Patil, a resident.The MSEDCL responded to TOI and shared details of works done, considering the increasing population in the area. On Sept 5, 2025, the original Wagholi MSEDCL section was split into four separate ones and the total sanctioned staff increased from 21 to 50 employees, while the number of section engineers went from one to four.Load was redistributed to address overloading. MSEDCL has implemented back-feeding arrangements for faster power restoration and is installing 29km of cabling and 31 ring main units under a scheme to further stabilise the network currently. New projects included two new major substations (132 KV). An additional 50 MVA transformer is proposed for the Khulewadi substation, along with four new feeders to improve distribution. A new switching station is also planned, said an MSEDCL official on email.The official further said complaints should be registered on toll free numbers — 1912, 18002333435 and 18002123435. “MSEDCL has created WhatsApp groups for specific feeders and sections. Residents are now notified directly about power breakdowns, planned shutdowns and repair progress. We will direct the staff to be more responsive. Consumers may also use Mahavitaran mobile app and communicate on Whatsapp for maximum online services,” he added.
