Mumbai power grid failure: Commuters hit hard as Indian Railways local train services come to halt

Due to a power outage in Mumbai today, the local trains, known to be the lifeline of the financial capital, came to a standstill! The local train services were hit for around two-and-a-half hours, causing hardships to commuters. According to Indian Railways’ officials quoted in a PTI report, as lights and fans inside the local trains stopped working, many people preferred to jump out and walk on rail tracks to reach the nearest railway station or road. They further said that this was a rare occurrence in the recent past when on both, Central Railway zone and Western Railway zone routes, the suburban train services came to a halt due to power grid failure.

According to officials, on Monday morning, due to a power grid failure in Mumbai, all local as well as long distance trains here were held up on rail tracks from 10:05 AM. The services on Central Railways’ harbour line, which links the city to neighbouring Navi Mumbai, resumed first at 10:55 AM, the zonal railway said. The main line of the Central Railways network from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) to Kasara and Khopoli, resumed at 12:26 PM.

According to the Western Railway zone, which runs local train services between Churchgate and Dahanu stations, the local train services were restored at 12:20 PM. A Western Railway spokesperson was quoted in the report saying that as power supply was restored on the zone’s Mumbai suburban section, all overhead equipment charged at 12:20 PM, following which the local train services were restored.

At present, both the zones are collectively running 953 suburban train services every day. Because of the power failure, several special outstation train services were hit as well. Due to this, the authorities of Indan Railways had to reschedule their departure. According to Central Railways, it has rescheduled the LTT-Gorakhpur (train number 01055), LTT-Gorakhpur (train number 02542), LTT-Darbhanga, LTT-Thiruvananthapuram and LTT-Varanasi special trains. While Western Railways said that due to the power disruption, its Bandra Terminus- Amritsar clone special train, Ahmedabad-Mumbai Central Karnavati Express, Bandra Terminus-Amritsar Pashchim Express, Sayaji Nagri Express as well as Bandra Terminus-Jodhpur Surya Nagri Express services were affected.