Power outage in Mumbai, trains stuck on tracks; supply partially restored

Mumbai: A rare citywide power outage paralysed Mumbai on Monday, halting local train services, trapping people in lifts and disrupting work from home adopted by millions during the ongoing pandemic.

Power restoration efforts began on a war footing and pocket-wise resumption in supply was started around noon onwards, nearly two hours after the outage.

Trains services took two-and-a-half hours to resume operations, beginning with CR's Harbour Line. The trains are carrying only essential services workers at present, which helped minimise the passenger inconvenience.

Both the Western Railway and Central Railway blamed the power cut from Tata Power (their power supplier) for the disruption in services.

With work-from-home becoming the norm across the services sector, employee output was impacted as the homes do not have power back-ups like institutional bodies.

However, a few were not so lucky, like the employees working in an upscale business complex in central Mumbai who found themselves stuck in an elevator during times of social distancing. After a few jittery minutes, they were evacuated.

In June 2018, there was a widespread power outage in the city and adjoining areas due to a technical glitch and also led to a sustained period of load-shedding for some consumers.

Maharashtra's Power minister Nitin Raut said the trouble on Monday emanated from Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company (MSETCL) facilities during planned maintenance work.

Power outages were reported from suburbs like Thane, Panvel, Dombivili and Kalyan as well, along with those in the island city and the suburbs.

A central team comprising officials from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) would be sent to Mumbai to study the power breakdown on Monday and assist the state government in finding solutions to such situations, Power minister R K Singh said.