To: corina.manuel@punemirror.com
Subject: MSEDCL Eyes Mumbai | Letter to the Editor
Dear Ms. Manuel:
This has reference to the above mentioned article in today’s Pune Mirror.
Re. the line “MSEDCL which handles power distribution in rural areas and eastern suburbs like Bhandup and Mulund”: I used to live in Mulund for decades, so I know that MSEB was the power supplier there. But I also live in Pune for decades and MSEB / MSEDCL has been the power supplier for all my time in Pune. Is Pune “rural area” or “eastern suburb”? Also, what about Nasik, Nagpur, etc., which are also serviced by MSEDCL as far as I know.
Re. the line “South Mumbai (Colaba to Mahim)”, when I used to live in the then Bombay, there were three agglomerations: (1) South Bombay, which went from GPO to Century Bazaar in Prabhadevi (2) Proper Bombay, which went up to Mahim on the western side and Sion on the eastern side, the point from which auto rickshaws were allowed to ply, and (3) Greater Bombay, which went up to Dahisar on the western side and Mulund on the eastern side, the point beyond which auto rickshaws were not allowed to ply. Maybe things have changed now but Colaba to Mahim was not called South Bombay during my time.
With those housekeeping points out of the way, to me the truly newsworthy and sensational part of the story lies in the implication of this move: If MERC grants approval to MSEDCL to supply electricity in parts of Mumbai that are currently serviced by Adani Electricity, Tata Power and BEST, residents in those parts will have a choice of electricity supplier! Mumbai would probably be the only city in India and one of the few in the world where that would be possible*. In my firsthand experience of living in many cities across many countries, at any given zipcode, there is one and only one electric utility. I’ve even heard that utility regulation is deliberately written to drive monopoly.
Hope you find this interesting!
Thanks and Regards.
KETHARAMAN SWAMINATHAN
15 June 2025
* I later learned that businesses in Mumbai do have a choice of electricity provider. But the process is cumbersome for two reasons: (1) The company needs to get an No Objection Certificate (NOC) from its existing electric utility and submit it to the new electric utility which it wishes to switch to (2) the new utility needs to lay cables to the company’s premises. Going by my personal experience in Frankfurt, both problems are solved in Germany: (1) The regulator says no need for NOC (2) Utility 1 and Utility 2 share their cabling, so Utility 2 does not have lay a cable to the company served by Utility 1, it places an order on Utility 1 to supply to the company but deals with the customer so that the customer is served by Utility 2, receives bills from Utility 2, makes payment to Utility 2 – even though it receives electricity via cable originally laid by Utility 1.
A condensed version of the above post was NOT published by Pune Mirro in its edition dated 16 June 2025.
