Maharashtra Speaker joins all-party MLAs in House to raise power crisis in Mumbai

3 min readMumbaiJun 30, 2026 06:52 PM IST

The Speaker criticised the BEST for failing to upgrade its infrastructure to ensure increasing power demands are met with. (File Photo)

The worsening power crisis in Mumbai led to all-party legislators including Speaker Rahul Narwekar raising voices in Maharashtra State Assembly on Tuesday and confronted the government over repeated 8 to 12-hour power outages.

Narwekar took a note of the situation and announced an emergency joint meeting to demand immediate accountability and a permanent resolution from the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking.

Expressing deep displeasure over the prolonged blackouts, Narwekar snubbed the BEST management, and said that persistent power failures tarnish the reputation of Mumbai as India’s commercial and financial capital.

The Speaker criticised the BEST for failing to upgrade its infrastructure to ensure increasing power demands are met with. He remarked that BEST could have taken the upgradation and strengthening of the distribution network well in advance and directed BEST to provide its road map to improve power supply in future. He also asked BEST to submit the report on measures taken to repair the technical fault and the response time taken in call centers.

Summoning an urgent meeting of the city’s elected representatives, the BEST General Manager, BMC Commissioner, senior utility officers, and state government officials at Vidhan Bhawan, he directed the administration to present a comprehensive, time-bound roadmap to fix the grid.

These exchanges took place during a heated discussion on a calling attention motion moved by Congress MLA Amin Patel and BJP MLA Captain R Tamil Selvan.

Selvan demanded immediate steps from the administration, claiming that ordinary citizens and small businesses are facing massive financial and physical losses due to unannounced power failures.

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Patel launched an attack alleging that neither the BEST General Manager nor senior engineers bother to answer phone calls from public representatives during prolonged blackouts.

Patel further stated that BEST is reeling under acute financial stress, leaving it completely starved of funds required to strengthen its distribution network. He demanded that BEST immediately deploy a fleet of mobile generator units to restore temporary power and acquire advanced fault-finding technology.

Minister of State for Urban Development Madhuri Misal admitted that a historic surge in power load had led to widespread tripping and supply interruptions. However, Misal assured the house that the government has taken serious note of the legislative fury and that BEST is currently in the midst of executing high-priority measures to upgrade and modernize its distribution network.