Mumbai, Thane face over hour-long power outage as transmission line trips

Mumbai: Many pockets in the financial capital and adjoining cities in the megapolis like Thane and Kalyan witnessed an over-hour-long power outage on Tuesday morning due to a tripping in a transmission line.

The outage comes at a time when Maharashtra is reeling under a power deficit pegged at around 2,500 mw, which has led the state discom to compulsorily cut power supply to some pockets, and outages in February this year as well as in October 2020.

Some parts of central Mumbai like Dadar, Matunga, along with suburbs like Bhandup and Mulund within the municipal limits of Mumbai, and the adjoining cities in the Mumbai Metropolitan

Regions like Thane, Kalyan, Dombivili faced a power outage from around 10 am.

A state official said that a Maharashtra State Transmission Company substation located at Padgha near Kalyan witnessed tripping, leading to the power supply being affected.

The supply from the transmission company was restored after over an hour and power restoration started in the affected parts gradually, the official said.

The exact reason for the tripping was, however, not immediately shared.

A spokesperson for Tata Power, a private sector utility, said as per an initial assessment, some parts of Mumbai experienced electricity failure due to Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (MSETCL) line tripping as part of the 400KVKalwa Grid, which supplies power to Mumbai and suburban areas.

"In order to maintain grid balance, load shedding might be initiated. Power will be restored once the MSETCL line gets energised," the spokesperson had said.

Many of the affected areas had started reporting restoration of power after about 70-80 minutes.

The financial capital generally does not face any mandatory power cuts, but has faced troubles in the past, including a disruption that lasted up to 18 hours in October 2020.

In the previous episode, the suburban train network - called as the lifeline of the megapolis - had also come to a halt.