Power supply has been restored in several areas in Mumbai, Maharashtra Energy Minister Nitin Raut said on Monday after a grid failure caused a widespread outage in the state capital and its suburbs that affected services. trains, delayed exams and caused traffic jams.
“Power supply has been restored to all essential services in Mumbai, the Mumbai suburbs, Kalyan, Thane, Palghar and New Mumbai. Non-essential services will also be restored shortly, ”Raut tweeted. He said earlier in the day that the failure was caused by “technical problems” during maintenance work.
Raut had said in a video message and tweets earlier that day that the issue was being addressed on a “war level,” adding that it will be restored in about an hour. “Once the power is restored, an investigation will be carried out into the reasons that led to the technical problem,” he had tweeted.
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The minister said that the problem emanated from the facilities of the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company (MSETCL) during a planned maintenance work. Tata Power, which is involved in both generation and distribution, attributed the power outage to a simultaneous firing of a substation at 10:10 am at the two substations of the state transmission company MSETCL in the suburbs of Kalwa and Kharghar.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray called an urgent meeting to assess the situation, which will be attended by Raut and senior government officials. Thackeray ordered an immediate investigation into the Mumbai energy scandal, an official statement said.
Travelers, hospitals hit
The trains resumed operations, beginning with the Central Railroad (CR) port line. City-wide rail services on the Western Railway and Central Railway lines stopped at around 10 a.m. as a result of the power outage, with both networks blaming their power supplier Tata Power’s outage.
“Trains between CSMT-Panvel on the Harbor Line have resumed. We are trying to restore services between CSMT-Kalyan, CSMT-Karjat / Kasara. Long distance trains from Mumbai rescheduled and regulated incoming trains at interchange points, director of public relations (CPRO), ”tweeted the Central Railway.
Commuters faced difficulties traveling by road in Mumbai, home to some 20 million people, on Monday when all 700 traffic lights across the city stopped working after the power outage. Mumbai Traffic Police said the signals and CCTV cameras stopped working and made traffic difficult. Control room officers stated that although no traffic jams were reported, vehicles were moving at a snail’s pace, especially on the Western Expressway at 8 a.m. onwards.
Health services, especially in civic hospitals, were also affected as a result of the city-wide power outage, with most of them canceling minor surgeries.
Several universities affiliated with the University of Mumbai (MU) had to reschedule their exams due to the power outage. Exams had to be canceled after they had started, while in others, colleges postponed exams scheduled for 11 a.m. or later.
“We had originally decided to reschedule the exams for 4 pm, but without being clear about the state of electricity, our group leader has informed all the universities to reschedule the exam for another day. We have already started to inform all of our students, ”said Marie Fernandes, principal of St Andrews College in Bandra.
Reports said that several employees at a luxury business complex were trapped in an elevator when the power went out. After a few difficult minutes, employees were safely evacuated, according to a video circulating on social media.
BSE and NSE, the benchmark stock exchanges, also reported power outages, but added that their operations continued normally.
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