Bombay HC Slams BMC, MSEDCL Over Open Transformer On Goregaon-Malad Link Road, Labels It Life-Threatening

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has come down heavily on the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for installing an open transformer box along with high tension electric wires right in the middle of a busy junction on the suburban Goregaon Malad Link Road.

The court noted that it was a serious safety hazard which caused a potential threat to human life, while adding that the officers of the BMC and MSEDCL would be “responsible” for all consequences, damages and compensation which would be required to be paid to any of the victims.

A bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Advait Sethna passed the order on Tuesday while hearing a petition filed by one Marathon Maxima Co-op Housing Society stating that an open transformer box and high tension electric wires leading to the box were placed in the middle of the road at a junction of the Goregaon Malad Link Road.

After going through the photographs, the bench said: “It certainly indicates an imminent danger which would be caused by such electricity installations, which are right at the middle of the road.”

The court further said that no maintenance, no care or any other precaution appears to be taken by the MSEDCL in protecting the installation, thus causing a potential threat to human life. “We wonder as to how at such a place (middle of the road) an electricity installation can be installed at all,” the court remarked.

Also, the BMC, which has presently undertaken the work of the Goregaon Malad Link Road, appears to have “turned a complete blind eye”, the court said.

In case of mishap, the court warned that the officers of the BMC and MSEDCL would be responsible for all “consequences, damages and compensation which would be required to be paid to any victim”. It added: “No other inference can be drawn from such a state of affairs.”

The HC has directed the MSEDCL and BMC to take immediate appropriate steps to remove and/or shift the transformer box.

The society had earlier raised concerns of parking/ dumping of towed or confiscated vehicles by the nearby police station outside the society’s gates which it said was causing obstruction. During the hearing, government pleader Poornima Kantharia informed the bench all vehicles have been removed from outside the gate of the petitioner society, however, she sought time to inform about the policy being framed on such issue.

The bench has asked Kantharia to provide steps being taken to remove such vehicles not just from this particular police station but from police stations across the city and kept the petition for hearing on May 7.