Several areas of Nagpur were plunged into darkness for about an hour and a half on Monday night after a failure in Mahatransco’s network. The outage, which occurred around 11:30 p.m., has highlighted the urgent need to strengthen the city’s transmission infrastructure.
The blackout was caused by a technical fault at Mahatransco’s 132 kV Khapri sub-station, disrupting power supply from four feeders. Affected areas included Wardha Road, Chinchbhavan, Besa, Beltarodi, Manish Nagar, Khapri, Pipla, and Hudkeshwar. Power was restored by around 12:30 a.m., but thousands of residents endured the inconvenience during the outage.
Nagpur’s electricity demand has surged rapidly, with peak demand reaching 750 MW this year—an increase of approximately 50 MW from the previous year. However, the transmission network has not been upgraded to accommodate this growth. While a new sub-station has been proposed and approved, progress has been slow. The 132 kV sub-station at Jattar Road is complete, but the cables are yet to be laid, with the tender process for the cables reportedly underway.
In addition, construction on the long-delayed Lendra Park sub-station is finally set to begin. However, several other critical proposals, including the installation of power transformers at Mankapur, Besa, Pardi, Hingna 1, and Hingna 2 sub-stations, remain in the planning stages.