This Tardeo high-rise gets just one electricity bill for the entire building

For nearly three years now about 20 families residing in a 34storeyed building at Tardeo say they have been paying for power bills that are five times higher than expected to Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport BEST The reason there is only one temporary meter that calibrates the power consumption of the entire building unlike individual meters that are provided to each resident of any other building Highrise higher bills Thakkar Tower near RTO Tulsiwadi lane at Tardeou00a0PicShadab Khan u00a0 A temporary meter is proffered in case a dwelling is under construction or there is no substation to manage the electricity supply to that building and others around it The latter reason has necessitated a stopgap meter for Thakkar Tower ldquoWe get a single electricity bill of around Rs 25 lakh for the entire building which residents divide among themselves We had been asking BEST to construct a substation and clear the hurdles for longrdquo said Satish Mehta secretary and resident Wellington View Cooperative Housing Society that has been formed for Thakkar Tower Habitants claim if all the flats had individual meters then the total cost of power consumption wouldnrsquot have exceeded Rs 50000 for every billing cycle Finally after months of waiting the work on constructing a substation began in February this year ldquoBEST has promised to provide individual meters once the substation is ready We have completed at least 70 per cent of the workrdquo said another resident of Thakkar Tower Work in progress Denizens claim they had constructed a substation previously but BEST asked them to demolish it as it hadnrsquot been authorised ldquoWe have requested the society to complete all the formalities pertaining to the substation and permanent electricity supply Once the substation is ready we will remove the temporary meterrdquo said a BEST official Meanwhile amidst these predicaments Mumbai Fire Brigade had sent a letter to BEST and BMC in Aprilend to verify the dangers of having temporary meters The assistant divisional fire officer had also inspected this building The contents of this letter mention that this particular temporary meter on threephase power supply is connected to electrical appliances in the flats pump room lifts staircase and lift lobby lights and would be consuming considerable power units ldquoThere are great chances of occurrence of fire as the connected power is less as compared to its demand requirement for a residential highrise building The transmission of energy through the conductor may cause melting of its insulationrdquo it said apart from mentioning other irregularities Sources in BEST said they had recently visited the building after receiving this communication from the fire brigade ldquoWe have sent our observations to the fire brigade and the societyrdquo said a BEST official BEST officials claimed they have sanctioned a load of 130 Kw and installed a temporary meter However they also asserted there was no possibility of overload or a fire as the supply recorded for month of May was 66 Kw u00a0