Current state of affairs at the cash-strapped Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking is fairly discouraging. While the organisation battles on to stay afloat, the huge debts it has acquired in the past few years are fast pulling it under.

In fact, the situation seemed to have reached a snapping point a few days ago, with the threat of blackout looming large over 10 lakh island city power consumers catered to by the undertaking. The reason: BEST has failed to settle up a considerable sum with Tata Power that supplies electricity to the undertaking, which then distributes it to consumers.