Navi Mumbai: Two college girls fell unconscious after sustaining severe electric shocks from an underground exposed live electrical wire while wading through a waterlogged stretch of the Mumbai carriageway of the Sion-Panvel Highway near the Nerul flyover around 1 pm on Wednesday. The two were rushed to Dr D Y Patil Hospital in Nerul by an autorickshaw driver waiting at the traffic signal nearby, who used his presence of mind to pull them out with a tree branch.The girls have been identified as Ujwala Wagh, 18 , and Shubhangi Nalawade, 16 , both residents of Shirawane village, Nerul, and students of People’s Education Society High School and Junior College in Sector 8B, CBD-Belapur. They were returning home from their college. After alighting at the bus stop near a sweet shop on the highway, they were wading through the flooded highway while holding hands to reach the pavement when the incident took place.At the hospital, the two were immediately provided treatment and stabilised by the doctors. After they regained consciousness, NMMC Mayor Sujata Patil met the girls at the hospital to check on their health condition. According to the directions of Mayor Sujata Patil, the girls were later shifted to the ICU at NMMC Hospital, Vashi, for observation.Following the incident, the MSEDCL technical team and NMMC officials of the electrical department, in the presence of the assistant electrical inspector from Thane, conducted a joint inspection of the spot, where the underground wire was found exposed near the road median. MSEDCL submitted the detailed technical report to the assistant electrical inspector.Auto driver Pravin Mahale, who rushed the girls to Dr D Y Patil Hospital, said, “While waiting at the traffic signal in my auto, I heard screams of the girls from behind. I rushed out and saw the two girls collapse on the flooded road and lie motionless. A traffic constable at the spot went to pick up the girls, and when he touched one of them, he sensed a minor electric current. Realising that there was electric current due to some live electric wire on the flooded road, I used a tree branch to remove the girls’ bags and then pull out the girls with the help of traffic constable.”MSEDCL’s PRO Mamta Pandey said, “Power is supplied to the streetlights under the Nerul L P Naka flyover by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s streetlight electricity meter connection. In the initial inspection of the incident spot by MSEDCL’s technical team, it was found that the insulation of one of the trenched outgoing cables passing through NMMC’s power meter connection was broken, thus exposing the underground live electric wire. Therefore, it is possible that the two girl students who were passing by the flooded road suffered electric shocks.”Pandey further informed that the incident spot and the area around it were secured by MSEDCL’s Nerul division by immediately shutting down the relevant power supply. The streetlightpower connection and the outgoing cable on it are owned and maintained by NMMC. “Further technical inspection and necessary action are being taken by NMMC’s electricity department,” said Pandey.
