Vasai: Life remained crippled across flood-hit Vasai-Virar on Tuesday as several areas continued to remain without electricity for over 40 hours. With power supply snapped, residents have also been left without drinking water, mobile network and internet services. As floodwaters refuse to recede, concerns are now mounting over the outbreak of water-borne diseases.Large parts of the city remained waterlogged after two days of heavy rain. Houses, housing societies, shops and roads continued to remain inundated, severely affecting daily life.The worst-hit has been the power infrastructure. The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company’s main substation at Suncity in Vasai (West) was submerged, while several transformers, feeder pillars and underground cables were inundated. Falling trees also damaged power lines in many areas, while a few transformers developed faults.As a safety measure to prevent electrocution, the power utility suspended electric supply in several localities. As a result, thousands of residents have been living without power for more than 40 hours.The prolonged outage affected mobile towers, disrupting network and internet connectivity. Employees working from home and students and traders dependent on online services have been among the worst affected.“We lost power at 6 am on Monday. Even by Tuesday evening, electricity had not been restored. Our inverter has drained completely and our mobile phones have run out of charge. Knee-deep water outside our house has left us stranded indoors,” said Dipali Bagul, a resident of Diwanman in Vasai.The power outage disrupted water supply as electric pumps were unable to lift water to overhead tanks in residential buildings. Several housing societies are now facing an acute shortage of drinking water.Flooded roads have affected the supply of essential commodities. Milk vans have been unable to reach several localities, resulting in shortages of milk, vegetables and other daily necessities.With stagnant water still remaining in several parts of the city, foul smell has started spreading across affected neighbourhoods. Residents fear an outbreak of water-borne diseases if the floodwaters do not recede soon.Suburban train services between Nalasopara and Virar continued to remain disrupted for the second consecutive day as water remained on the tracks. Several local trains were delayed and a few services were cancelled, causing severe inconvenience to thousands of commuters. The Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation’s transport service was also badly affected, with only 16 buses operating across the city on Tuesday.
