Mumbai, Nov 24 (IANS): Reliance Energy said on Thursday it has detected 11 cases pertaining to theft of power, illegal distribution and customers and damage to power network and instruments in the city this month so far.

While six cases were filed by Reliance Energy's Central Division Vigilance Team, four were lodged by the East Division and one by the South Division in the city, said a spokesperson.

The Central Division has lodged FIRs with Malvani and Kurar police stations against 12 illegal distributors-users, while the East Division has filed complaints against 10 illegal distributors-users in Shivaji Nagar and Mankhurd police stations, and the South Division has booked one unauthorized distributor-user through the Nirmal Nagar police station.

These illegal distributors-users have defrauded the company of nearly Rs 6 million revenue by unauthorisedly tapping power, the spokesperson said.

With this, Reliance Energy has lodged 120 FIRs against illegal 412 customers and 260 unauthorised distributors in the past one year, which is nearly twice the figure of the previous year.

Through these ongoing efforts to control power thefts, the company has managed to slash its distribution losses to eight per cent, amongst the lowest in the country.

The company caters 24x7 to three million customers in and around Mumbai, of which nearly one million are in slum areas, from where the problem of illegal distributors and users has been found in some pockets.

Power thefts not only overload the distribution networks, but result in failures in transformers and cables, increasing repairs and servicing costs to the company.