Residents of Unit 1 in Aarey Milk Colony have spent nine days without electricity after heavy rain and strong winds toppled power poles and damaged a transformer on July 4. When mid-day visited the area on Sunday, repair work on the decades-old transformer was underway.

Residents said they were unsure whether the ageing infrastructure would even function after repairs. The prolonged outage has forced families to live in darkness or hire diesel generators, while cattle farm owners say their operating costs have shot up.