Central Railway’s chief public relations officer (CPRO) Shivaji Sutar said that the Power supply tripped momentarily -- from 9.49- 9.52am -- on Harbour and Main line of Central Railway. (Express photo by Ganesh Shirsekar) Around 50 suburban trains were cancelled and 140 others were delayed after an hour-long power outage hit several parts of Mumbai as the Mulund-Trombay line tripped on Sunday morning. The areas hit by the power cut, which lasted from 9.42am to 10.45am, included Sion, Matunga, Parel, Dadar and Kurla. Several commuters were seen walking on railway tracks as train services were impacted.
State energy department head Dinesh Waghmare said the problem was triggered by a fire in the BARC mountains in Trombay area. Power Minister Nitin Raut has announced a high-level probe in the matter.
Principal Secretary (energy) Waghmare said, “The Mulund-Trombay line passes through the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) area. A conductor had snapped there. We are told that this happened due to a fire in the BARC mountains. Our people had gone there, but initially they did not allow us to enter the area and do repairs. The Sunday morning requirement was 2,200 MW and there was a shortage of 800 MW due to this failure. Power supply is normal now.”
According to a statement from Tata Power Company, which supplies power in Mumbai: “This morning, the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited transmission line from Kalwa to Trombay had massive voltage fluctuations causing tripping of Trombay Salsette-1 on overload. This affected the South Mumbai electricity distribution system.”
“However, Tata Power’s Hydro plants were intact, and the Bhira Hydro Plant got islanded and synchronised,” it added.
Speaking to The Indian Express, a spokesperson for the Western Railway said train services were affected from 9.42 am to 10.45 am between Churchgate and Andheri station and supply was diverted from Jogeshwari area to resume the services. Train No 12954 August Kranti Rajdhani Express arrived late at Mumbai Central by around 30 minutes.
Central Railway’s chief public relations officer (CPRO) Shivaji Sutar said that the Power supply tripped momentarily — from 9.49- 9.52am — on Harbour and Main line of Central Railway. The power outage also hit monorail services even as Metro 1 services remained unaffected.
A spokesperson for power supplier Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited (AEML) said: “Today’s power outage was caused due to tripping of 220 KV transmission line and subsequent outage of Tata’s Trombay power plant. Adani Electricity consumers were largely unaffected as we were able to ramp up our generation at Dahanu in a very short period of time. This helped early restoration of power to consumers in South Mumbai as well.”
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