Nearly 1,200 locations across south and central Mumbai have been identified by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking for urgent underground cable repairs, even as repeated power outages continue to affect electricity consumers in the island city. However, the repair work remains dependent on permission from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to excavate concrete roads, a long-pending issue that has delayed replacement of the utility's ageing underground cable network.
The identified locations are spread across areas including Marine Lines, Girgaon, Bhuleshwar, Kalbadevi, Wadala, Matunga, Bhendi Bazaar, Masjid, Sion, Mahim, Zaveri Bazaar and Dadar. BEST supplies electricity to around 1.05 million consumers in south and central Mumbai.
According to BEST officials, discussions were held with the BMC earlier this week regarding permission to dig up concrete roads. They stated that unless the required approvals are granted, repairing the underground cable faults would remain difficult. The utility has once again sought permission to undertake excavation work in the affected areas.
A BMC official said permissions to excavate concrete roads had been denied because restoring such roads is more difficult than repairing asphalt roads. The official, however, added that the civic body had recently granted BEST permission to lay 120 km of extra-high-voltage underground power cables across south Mumbai.
BEST officials said only three to five metres of road would need to be excavated at each location to remove damaged cables and install new ones. They added that most of the excavation would be carried out parallel to the road network and that the replacement work would be executed in phases over a period of six to eight months. The repair exercise comes as BEST faces criticism over repeated power outages that have disrupted large parts of south Mumbai during the past several weeks. The issue was also discussed in the Maharashtra Assembly earlier this week, where legislators, including Speaker Rahul Narwekar, questioned the utility over the recurring disruptions. Following the discussion, BEST assured legislators that the operational shortcomings responsible for the outages would be addressed within six months.
Officials said the undertaking plans to spend around ₹20 crore to overhaul its ageing underground cable network. They attributed the recent increase in outages to the ageing electricity network, rising power demand, successive heatwaves and rapid redevelopment across the island city. BEST is currently handling more than 2,500 unresolved complaints related to underground cable faults and other technical issues. Officials said the problem is most severe in south Mumbai's A, B, C, D and E wards, where a single fuse control room serves around 350,000 electricity consumers.
The utility received around 7,500 power-related complaints in 2025, nearly 1,000 more than the previous year. Officials said complaints increased during the summer as electricity demand rose and have continued during the monsoon, with waterlogging exposing underground cables to technical issues. According to officials, engineers have, in several instances, restored electricity supply by diverting power through alternative cable networks. They said this temporarily restored supply but also increased the load on healthy cables while leaving the original faults unresolved.
To strengthen maintenance operations, BEST has approved the recruitment of around 690 field workers to detect and repair cable faults. In addition, 127 drivers and 100 mechanics from the undertaking's transport wing will be temporarily deployed to assist the power supply teams.