Mumbai power outage brings local trains to standstill, CM orders probe

MUMBAI: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray on Monday ordered an inquiry into a massive power outage in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) that brought the local trains, considered as the city’s lifeline, to a standstill for nearly two-and-a-half hours, causing hardships to commuters.

Thackeray held a meeting on the issue and instructed authorities concerned to ensure there is no recurrence of the episode, an official statement said. Power supply in majority of areas in the city was restored within three to three-and-a-half hours after it was affected at around 10 am.

State Energy Minister Nitin Raut, who attended the meeting via video conferencing, also said reasons behind the technical snag that caused power failure will be probed.

Nitin Raut later tweeted that “Power supply to all essential services in Mumbai, Mumbai Suburbs, Kalyan, Thane, Palghar & New Mumbai have been restored”. The meeting, which was heldat the chief minister’s official residence ‘Varsha’ in afternoon, was also attended by state chief secretary Sanjay Kumar and representatives of power supplying companies like BEST, Tata and Adani.

“During the meeting, the CM instructed a probe into the matter and asked to ensure there is no repeat of the incident,” the statement said. The CM has asked to check whether the snag was “expected, unexpected or was caused by dereliction” and directed authorities to remain alert in view of the withdrawing monsoon forecast over the next four days.

The circuit 1 at 400 KV Kalwa-Padgha GIS stopped working due to over voltage at 4:33 am. The supply, however, was unaffected even as the maintenance work on the circuit 1 was on, the statement said.

Earlier in the day, Raut said the entire load was then transferred to circuit 2. “Repair and maintenance work of Circuit 1 of 400 KV GIS was underway and the entire load was put on Circuit 2. However, sudden technical failure in Circuit 2 resulted in power being affected in most parts of Mumbai and Thane,” Raut said.

Power failure hits city’s water supply   
Monday’s power grid failure has  also affected the normal supply of water in various parts of Mumbai, prompting the civic body to ask citizens to use water judiciously. The water supply to various parts of the city is expected to become normal by Tuesday afternoon, the BMC said