01 November,2010 07:30 AM IST | | Vedika Chaubey
Electricity bills of Colaba building, where ex-BEST general manager's kin has flat, consumed too little power during construction
Yet another skeleton is tumbling out of Colaba's Adarsh Society.
In 2007, when the 31-storey building was still under construction, it consumed barely 200 units of electricity a month.
A worker gives final touches to the interior of the Adarsh Society flat
MiD DAY has documents, which show that the monthly power consumption was 200 units. This continues till date.
Terming this as impossible, BEST officials and experts in the field claimed that construction of such a tall building would use up a minimum of 30,000 to 50,000 units of electricity.
During construction work at a site, BEST provides temporary electricity at a cost of Rs 15 per unit.
An expert said it's impossible that a 31-storey building would consume only 200 units of electricity a month.
The daughter of former BEST general manager, Uttam Khobragade, Devyani, owns a flat in the building.
Khobragade who was general manager of BEST in 2007, sounded annoyed.
"I don't know about it. No electricity is required for construction of a building," said Khobragade who now serves as principal secretary, Tribal Development Department. "It is not the duty of the general manager to look for unit consumption of a building being constructed."
Khobragade helped the society secure additional building rights from the adjacent BEST bus depot. This allowed builders to extend up to 31 floors, from the original six floors.
Mum's the word
"Since 2007, we have witnessed manipulation and tampering of the electricity meter and in billing," a senior BEST official said on condition of anonymity. "And whoever tried to intervene was either transferred or suspended."
The official said that an employee who took down monthly meter readings had discovered the fault made a noting of this. "He was transferred with immediate effect," the official said.
While a meter reader notes down the monthly average consumption of electricity, a staffer from the BEST vigilance department is required to visit the site and check if there is any tampering with the meter.
"Vigilance department employees had been strictly instructed not to visit the Adarsh Society site to look for any meter tampering," the official claimed.
The electricity unit consumption document says that the initial load was 25 KW, which was upgraded to 100 KW in a few months.
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A higher electricity load could have been called for to power construction machinery that needed more electricity.
"When the load was 25 KW, reading of units consumed was 4,010.
When the load was 100KW, the units consumed surprisingly went down to 200 units, instead of rising," said officials from BEST's electricity department.
Expert comments
I think 500 units should be consumed a month at a construction site of 1,000-sq-ft area. For the plot this large, the total electricity consumption will be around 50,000 units.
Ashok Pendse, Power analyst
While working on big projects, I have noticed that it costs about Rs 10 lakh for two years construction work of electricity.
Anand Gupta, General secretary, Builders' Association
Basic calculation is 1,000 units for 10 hours for construction. That would be minimum 30,000 units a month. So, consuming just 200 units a month is impossible.
S M Hakim, Electrical contractor and consultant
200 units
The monthly electricity consumption of the society since 2007
The Other Side
It is not the duty of the general manager to look for unit consumption of a building being constructed.
Uttam Khobragade, former BEST general manager
