Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray called an urgent meeting on Monday to assess the situation after a major grid failure caused a widespread blackout in Mumbai and surrounding areas. The state energy minister Nitin Raut and senior government officials will attend the meeting even as power supplies to all essential services in Mumbai and its suburbs were restored.
“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.
Thackeray had previously spoken with Raut and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner IS Chahal about the network failure in Mumbai and gave instructions for its restoration as soon as possible, according to the Maharashtra CM Office. “The prime minister has given instructions for the restoration of electricity supply as soon as possible. He has also given instructions to departments such as the fire department, etc. to remain vigilant during this time of need. The prime minister has also instructed local authorities to make the necessary arrangements for standard passengers on Mumbai local trains, ”an official statement said.
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Local trains, considered the city’s lifeline, were affected for nearly two and a half hours, causing difficulties for travelers, railroad officials said. All long-distance and suburban trains here were stopped on the tracks since 10.05 a.m. after the power grid failure in the financial capital on Monday morning, authorities said. Many passengers got off and walked on the tracks to get to the nearest station or highway.
Rail officials said this was rare in the recent past when suburban services on the Central Rail (CR) and Western Rail (WR) routes were stopped due to a power grid failure. In September, CR and WR services, which are currently only administered for essential services personnel amid the Covid-19 outbreak, were suspended due to waterlogging on the roads after heavy rains.
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Central Railway services on the port line, which connects the city with neighboring Navi Mumbai, first resumed at 10.55 am, CR said in a statement. Its main line network from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj terminal to Kasara in neighboring Thane and Khopoli in Raigad resumed at 12:26 pm, the statement added.
According to Western Railway, which operates local trains between Churchgate and Dahanu stations (in Palghar), their services were restored at 12:20 pm. “When power supply was restored to the Mumbai suburban section of the Western Railway, all aerial equipment was loaded at 12.20pm and suburban train services were restored,” a WR spokesperson said, according to the PTI news agency. .
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Several special train services at the stations were also affected, forcing the railway authorities to reschedule their departure.
The Central Railway in its statement said that it has rescheduled the special trains Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Gorakhpur, LTT-Gorakhpur, LTT-Thiruvananthapuram, LTT-Darbhanga and LTT-Varanasi.
WR officials said their Bandra Terminus-Amritsar clone special train, Bandra Terminus-Amritsar Pashchim Express, Ahmedabad-Mumbai Central Karnavati Express, Sayaji Nagri Express and Bandra Terminus-Jodhpur Surya Nagri Express were affected due to the power outage.
Commuters faced a difficult time when all 700 traffic lights across the city stopped working due to a power outage. And, exams at various universities affiliated with the University of Mumbai (MU) were rescheduled due to the Mumbai blackout. In some cases, the exams had to be canceled after they had started, while in others, the universities postponed the exams scheduled for 11 a.m. or later.
(With contributions from the agency)
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