MUMBAI, July 23 -- In what is perhaps a first for the BEST Undertaking, it is set to outsource the maintenance of its 80-year-old underground power cable network in Mumbai to a third party. BEST sources said that the tender to appoint a contractor would soon be floated. The tender is expected to be for a period of two to three years. The move comes as the undertaking struggles with an acute manpower shortage and an increasing number of cable faults, particularly in the island city. The outsourcing of maintenance and repair works is expected to be primarily for wards A, B, C, D and E and places such as Girgaum, Bhuleshwar and Kalbadevi which suffered power cuts this summer. The authorities received 2,500-odd complaints of power outages from South Mumbai alone. A BEST official said that the Undertaking was very short-staffed, with over 3,000 vacancies in the supply division alone. "Since we do not have the manpower to take care of so many faults, we will invite tenders for appointing a third party whose staff will repair the cables," he said. "Our employees will assist them." Another official said that BEST had not been recruiting people since 2019 as part of its austerity measures. The proposal will be presented to the BEST Committee in a month once the third party is finalised. According to BEST officials, apart from short staff, there were several other reasons for the delay in attending to power outages. "Infrastructure and road works are a major reason," said an official. "We are also not permitted to dig cement concrete roads by the BMC, which delays things." The age of the cables is also a major factor. There are cable faults beneath the suburban railway tracks that are 15 feet below the surface, making repairs extremely challenging. BEST officials said that many of the underground cables serving Girgaum and adjoining areas were laid between 1985 and 1990. According to internal data, BEST received around 7,500 power outage complaints in 2025, nearly 1,000 more than in 2024, largely due to rising electricity demand and dwindling manpower....