According to D Koli, executive engineer of MSEDCL, load shedding is imminent in Maharashtra, but it can be curbed only through recovery and cutting down power theft. While Kalyan has now come under ‘B’ grade for load shedding from ‘C’, Dombivli has moved up to ‘A’ grade from ‘B’.

In Dombivli, load shedding has been brought down to five hours from five-and-a-half hours.

Last year, Dombivli witnessed 26 per cent losses, but these came down to 15 per cent this year, according to Koli. Dombivli also recorded an increase in revenue by Rs 1.16 crore as compared to the last year, Koli said.

The MSEDCL checked 19,000 meters and found 2,000 of them faulty. According to Koli, some 1,084 meters were found to be tampered with and a fine of Rs 1.24 crore was collected from the consumers.

“Dombivli has now come under ‘A’ grade. If there is a further reduction in load shedding, Dombivli will either have zero or minimum load shedding,” said Koli.

The losses in Kalyan (rural), comprising areas like Murbad, have been brought down from 55 per cent to 45 per cent. Even the rural areas have seen a cut in load shedding by half-an-hour-earlier Kalyan (rural) had to go without power for six-and-a-half hours a day