Several explosions were reported from an underground electricity cable on Lake Avenue on Tuesday morning, potentially caused by an earthmover that uncovered the cable during road work for the installation of underground drainage lines.

Manisha Bose, the councillor of Ward 87, said an earthmover had been deployed to dig the road when the explosions started.

“There was some flame. The fire brigade and the police came, but there were no injuries,” she said. “It seems the explosions happened because of a short circuit,” she said.

An engineer from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) stated the digging of the road started on Tuesday.

“The earthmover may have unintentionally hit the electric cable, which led to the explosion. It was an error. It happens sometimes while doing underground repairs because there are so many utility lines underground in proximity to each other,” said the engineer.

The CESC was immediately informed. Their engineers soon arrived, KMC engineers said.

“We resumed the work in the presence of CESC engineers, and there was no problem later,” said the KMC engineer.

A CESC official said that they received a call in the control room at 11.19am about the power supply going off at some homes in the neighbourhood.

“We restored the power supply in some of the homes by 12.08pm. Power supply was fully restored by 2pm,” said Soumitra Ghosh, senior vice-president (distribution services), CESC.

“The road work snapped the cables, causing the disruption,” he said.

A local shopkeeper said some residents rushed out on hearing the explosions. “Everyone was confused about what exactly happened,” he said.

KMC sources said Calcutta’s underground has a mix of multiple utility lines — water lines, drainage lines, electric cables, telephone cables and internet cables. In many places, there are no proper maps of underground utility lines, making fresh underground work a greater challenge.