A power grid failure was reported in Mumbai Metropolitan Region on Monday afternoon. Areas of Thane, Raigad and Palghar districts came to a standstill owing to the power grid failure.
Power supply remained interrupted for two hours in districts including Powai, Marol, Goregaon, Versova, Chandivali, Navi Mumbai, Thane city, Thane rural, Andheri Chakala, JB Nagar, Meghvadi, Jogeshwari, Sarvoday Nagar, Konkan Nagar, Hanjar Nagar and Poonam Nagar.
Taking cognizance of the matter, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray called for an immediate probe into the technical fault that led to the outage. Thackrey also called an urgent meeting with power minister Nitin Raut and energy secretary Asim Gupta to discuss the Power failure issue. “Thackeray discussed the power outage with Minister for Energy Nitin Raut and directed that immediate efforts be made to restore power supply,” a statement from his office read.
Nitin Raut said the reason behind the technical snag that caused a power failure in parts of the MMR will be probed once the electricity supply is restored.
Train services were also badly affected as the services came to a halt in the financial capital. Even hospitals went without power causing difficulties to patients. Traffic signals in some areas too stopped working. In many parts of the city, ATMs also stopped working. The power supply could be restored in most parts of the city at around 3 pm. Mumbai airport and the stock exchange were functional. The central and western line train services were restored at 12.20 pm.
Western Railway said the breakdown was due to a grid failure at Tata Power. Commuters were seen walking on rail tracks. Such a large-scale power failure was unprecedented for the country’s financial capital.
Due to the power failure, many private offices remain closed. Many passengers were stuck inside the local trains. Hindi cine personalities including megastar Amitabh Bachchan, actors Ali Fazal, Nimrat Kaur and filmmaker Kunal Kohli urged people to “stay calm”.