Kandivali East Residents Bears Brunt of Gas-Supply Outage, Raises Concerns About On-going Projects

Due to emergency maintenance work on a gas supply pipeline, 20,000 residents in Kandivali East, including the Lokhandwala Township had to suffer a full-day gas supply outage. However, the gas supply was restored post-10 pm in the night, leaving Kandivali East residents struggling throughout the day. 

Santy Shetty, a resident of Lokhandwala Township said, "When my house help arrived to cook, we discovered the gas supply had been cut off. The timing, around 7 to 8 in the morning, was particularly chaotic as we were preparing for work and the kids for school. The lack of prior notification from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) was concerning. Furthermore, despite the gas being cut in the morning, it was only restored by 11 at night, the delay seemed excessive. Why is no one held accountable for this?

Other residents had similar complaints. Residents criticized the lack of timely information about the cause of the emergency and potential future disruptions as the restoration began at 5 pm. Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) cited a gas leak on Akurli Road as the reason for the outage, claiming they informed customers via SMS. However, some residents denied receiving alerts.

According to Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) spokesperson, the emergency team responded to reports of a gas odour on Akurli Road, close to Growel’s Mall, prompting a temporary halt in gas supply as a safety measure to conduct necessary repairs.

Santy Shetty also claimed that the pipeline disruption resulted from construction activities related to a subway beneath the Western Express Highway (WEH) in Kandivali. He said, "If the pipeline was not underground, why no feasibility tests are done? The project is already running late, as the initial completion deadline was December 2023, now extended to May 2024, I really don't when are going to get relieved from this."