Several parts of Mumbai on Monday, 12 October, experienced a power outage at approximately 10 am due to an electric supply failure. Andheri, Kandivali, Vashi, Thane, Juhu, Mira Road, Navi Mumbai and Panvel were among the areas affected by the outage. The supply was reportedly restored in most areas after over two hours of outage.
“Power supply restored at Municipal Head Office, A ward , B ward, C Ward, D ward, H/W ward, R/C, S ward, K/E & K/W ward. Western, Central and Harbour Railway traffic restored at 1226 hrs,” the Mrihanmumbai Munisipal Corporation (BMC) said.
Local and outstation train services on the Western, Central and Harbour lines were disrupted briefly before being restored.
- 01/01Passengers being rescued by authorities after trains on Central line got stuck due to power failure.(Photo: Twitter/Central Railway)
Some traffic signals at areas stopped working as well, NDTV reported. A report by The Times of India said that water supply to Thane from Temghar had also stopped after a power cut at the pumping station.
WHAT AUTHORITIES SAID
As life across the city came to a standstill, Maharashtra Energy Minister Nitin Raut said that the reason for the outage was a technical glitch in Circuit 2 of the Kalva-Padghe powerhouse.
“Due to a technical glitch in Circuit 2 of the Kalva-Padghe powerhouse, the regions between Thane and Mumbai are facing a power cut. Our staff is working on it and power will be restored in an hour or 45 minutes,” Raut said, according to ANI.
Meanwhile, Tata Power said that at 10:10 am there were simultaneous substation tripping in MSETCL's Kalwa, Khargar which caused a huge dip in frequency in Mumbai transmission system leading to the power outage.
Earlier, Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) had taken to Twitter to say that the cause was a failure of incoming electric supply from TATA.
Adani Electricity announced on Twitter that there was a major power grid failure due to which supply is affected in most parts of Mumbai.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation issued some numbers on Twitter for citizens to call in case of emergencies.
LOCAL, OUTSTATION TRAIN SERVICES DISRUPTED
Mumbai Suburban trains of the Central, Western and Harbour lines were restored after being briefly held up due to the grid failure. Earlier, Western Railway announced that services between Churchgate and Borivali had been suspended owing to the grid failure.
“As of 12:26 pm, all services onn Central Railway have been restored. Harbour Line services were restored by 10:55 am,” a Central Railway spokesperson told ANI.
Several outstation trains to and from the city were either had to be rerouted or rescheduled.
The Western Railway had earlier said that since power supply was available from MSETCL at Vasai Road, it had been extended to work essential suburban trains between Borivali to Virar.
However, the power outage did not affect stock exchanges, with both BSE and NSE saying that they were functioning normally, PTI reported.
HOSPITALS AFFECTED, SURGERIES RESCHEDULED
Facilities at civic-run hospitals were affected due to the outage as many surgeries had to be rescheduled, Hindustan Times (HT) reported.
According to HT, civic-run hospitals like Lokmanya Tilak General Hospital, also known Sion Hospital, BYL Nair, King Edward Memorial hospitals stopped power supply at their OPDs and general wards.
“We don’t know how long there will be a power shortage. So, we had to stop the supply at OPDs, which don’t require emergency services. But as we had already received a large number of patients, we completed their checkup in the dark with torches and phone lights,” a resident doctor from Nair Hospital was quoted by the daily as saying.
Sion Hospital, too, cancelled a few minor surgeries.
The BMC said that it is monitoring the situation in hospitals.
“@mybmc is personally & closely monitoring the status at all private & government hospitals, to ensure that their services continue unhindered, even in the dearth of power supply. No untoward incident has been reported so far,” the BMC tweeted.
The BMC Commissioner also issued a statement, asking all hospitals to contact their respective SWM transport GARAGE officers to get enough supply of diesel for at least eight hours so that there is no power failures in hospitals, especially ICUs.
Many residents of the city took to Twitter to tweet about the massive power outage, saying that they had never seen a failure of this extent.
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