CM orders probe into Mumbai power outage, Central team to visit

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday took serious cognisance of a massive power outage in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and ordered an immediate probe.

Thackeray held a meeting on the issue and instructed authorities concerned to ensure there is no recurrence of the episode, an official statement said.

Power supply in majority of areas in Mumbai was restored within three to three-and-a-half hours after it was affected at around 10 am, it said.

State Energy Minister Nitin Raut, who attended the meeting via video conferencing, also said reasons behind the technical snag that caused power failure will be probed.

Nitin Raut later tweeted that, 'Power supply to all essential services in Mumbai, Mumbai Suburbs, Kalyan, Thane, Palghar & New Mumbai have been restored'.

The meeting, which was held at the chief minister's official residence 'Varsha' in afternoon, was also attended by state chief secretary Sanjay Kumar and representatives of power supplying companies like BEST, Tata and Adani.

'During the meeting, the chief minister instructed a probe into the matter and asked to ensure there is no repeat of the incident,' the statement said.

The CM has asked to check whether the snag was 'expected, unexpected or was caused by dereliction' and directed authorities concerned to remain alert in view of the withdrawing monsoon forecast over the next four days.

The circuit 1 at 400 KV Kalwa-Padgha GIS stopped working due to over voltage at 4.33 am. The supply, however, was unaffected even as the maintenance work on the circuit 1 was on, the statement said.

Earlier in the day, Raut said the entire load was then transferred to circuit 2.

'Repair and maintenance work of Circuit 1 of 400 KV GIS was underway and the entire load was put on Circuit 2. However, sudden technical failure in Circuit 2 resulted in power being affected in most parts of Mumbai and Thane,' Raut said.

He also directed the state chief secretary to ensure that the control rooms and fire brigade are on alert to prevent any mishaps due to power outage, it said.

In the morning, the power outage paralysed Mumbai, 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 12 noon onwards.

Power ministry to send central team

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

'A central team will visit Mumbai to identify the problem and to find out possible solutions against such break down,' Singh said in a statement issued by the Ministry of Power on Monday evening.

Earlier in the day, the minister said the power supply in Mumbai has been restored substantially.

'Out of more than 2000 MW which went off, about 1900 MW has been restored, the remaining will be restored soon. The national grid is fine, the problem happened in some parts of the state grid,' he added.

The minister also said central power sector officers have been rendering assistance for restoring full electricity supply in Mumbai.