Power Cuts Hit Mumbai’s Mahim West: Aging Cables Blamed – What Residents Need to Know

Updated: June 21, 2025 • By Mumbai Bureau

Key Takeaways

• Who’s affected: Over 5,000 households in Mahim West have reported multiple outages since June 19, 2025.
• Why it’s happening: Deteriorating underground cables, last replaced over 25 years ago, are failing under monsoon‑era moisture and load stress.
• What’s next: BEST and MSEDCL officials promise a phased cable‑replacement plan pending BMC excavation approval.

What Happened?

Since the afternoon of June 19, Mahim West residents have endured rolling blackouts lasting 30–90 minutes each. Local councillor Rekha Patil told the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) division that “every evening, families lose power twice, disrupting work, schooling, and medical equipment” timesofindia.indiatimes.com.

According to BEST’s official Twitter handle, fault complaints surged from 12 to 75 per day, compared with June’s early figures of 5–10 daily calls twitter.com. Early investigation pins the blame on brittle XLPE‑insulated cables laid in the mid‑1990s, now prone to water‑treeing and insulation breakdown under Mumbai’s high humidity.

Why Old Cables Are Failing

1. Age and Material Fatigue
   • XLPE (cross‑linked polyethylene) insulation degrades after ~25 years when repeatedly exposed to moisture and thermal cycles.
   • A 2021 IEEE study on underground cables notes that water‑treeing can accelerate dielectric failure when preventive maintenance lapses occur researchgate.net.
2. Monsoon Moisture
   • Heavy June rains raised subsoil water tables, allowing seepage into micro‑cracks and exacerbating insulation breakdown.
3. Road‑Dig Ban Delay
   • The BMC roads department has denied excavation permits on newly‑laid concrete roads, delaying the replacement of critical cable segments beneath Mahim’s arterial lanes.

Expert Insight

“Underground cable networks require scheduled condition assessments every 15–20 years. Once XLPE shows water‑tree patterns, breakdown is inevitable under load,”
says Dr. Arjun Mehta, Senior Electrical Engineer at IIT Bombay.
Profile • 20+ years of utility network research • IEEE senior member

Dr. Mehta’s recent peer‑reviewed work underscores the need for partial reconductoring—upgrading old circuits with moisture‑retardant insulation and smart fault‑locators to preempt outages.

Impact on Residents

• Medical Equipment: Oxygen concentrators and home dialysis machines went offline during nighttime cuts, forcing two families to shift patients temporarily to hospitals.
• Water & Sewage: Submersible pump motors died mid‑cycle, halting water supply on 4th and 5th floor apartments.
• Work‑from‑Home: Educators and corporate professionals reported Zoom calls crashing twice daily.

What Happens Next?

• BEST Action Plan: BEST officials have mapped 3 km of cables for “priority reconductoring” and aim to begin work by July 1, pending BMC’s excavation nod.
• Alternate Power: Over 200 households have arranged inverter backups; local solar‑UPS vendors report a 35% spike in inquiries since June 18.
• Deputy CM Appeal: Residents, led by Yusuf Dossani, have petitioned Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to fast‑track the permit process and allocate emergency funds.

Daily Digest

Stay informed on Mumbai’s power landscape:

Fact‑Check

• Claim: “Outages are due to load‑shedding.”
  Reality: BEST confirms these are technical failures, not rotational load‑shedding cycles twitter.com.
• Claim: “BMC denies all excavation requests.”
  Reality: BMC policy bans digging only on roads paved within the last 3 years; older stretches are cleared for utility work upon application timesofindia.indiatimes.com.

How to Prepare & Stay Safe

• Keep mobile phones and power banks fully charged.
• Register backup generator or inverter installation with your local electricity division to ensure safe hook‑ups.
• File real‑time fault reports via BEST’s 24×7 helpline (022‑50897100) or SMS NOPOWER <Consumer No.> to 9930399303.