Rain switches off power, throws railway out of gear in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Four days after suppliers promised the state advisory committee on power to provide 24-hour electricity during monsoon, the city's four main supply lines collapsed around 7.55pm on Monday evening after a heavy spell of shower. Even as half the city plunged into darkness, rains created hurdles in operations on Central Railway's main as well as Harbour lines, leaving thousands of homeward-bound Mumbaikars stranded. The showers also rained reports of waterlogged roads and uprooted trees.

According to BEST and RInfra sources, areas in the northern parts of the island city, Dharavi, Dadar, Mahim, Parel, Wadala, and Sion, and parts of the western suburbs, including Bandra, Khar and Santa Cruz, faced power-cuts for almost half an hour. According to BEST, the reason was that six main feeders tripped, though Tata Power apparently restored supply in 20 minutes. The state power load monitoring authorities said the lines bringing power to Dharavi, Salsette, Carnac and Parel power distribution centres tripped following a snag. They also suspect lightning and heavy rains could have caused a fault.

According to a source in Reliance, parts of suburbs under its jurisdiction, such as Bandra, Khar, Santa Cruz, Chunabhatti and Vikhroli, remained in the dark for 25 to 30 minutes, with Vikhroli being worst hit.

Tata Power officials, however, declined to reveal any information, and Load Dispatch Centre authorities said even they were not given any information about the blackout by TP.

A power expert, who was It may be recalled that in the meeting of state advisory committee on power the suppliers in Mumbai, the Tata, BEST and Reliance had made presentations on Friday last assuring total perfection in their preparedness for monsoon. "Within four days it seems to have failed. It shows how hollow our promises are?" said a senior power expert who was present at the meeting.

Even as the city and the suburbs grappled with the power outage, hundreds of commuters, most of them office-goers returning home, were stranded at CST, with CR trains thrown out of gear. A tree fell near tracks between Govandi and Chembur, affecting Harbour line services, and a signal failure was reported in Kurla on the main line. But the WR was not affected.

A railway spokesperson confirmed that the CR ran trains 15-20 minutes behind schedule, though a passenger said Harbour trains were 40 minutes late. Around 9pm at CST, there were neither announcements nor indicators showing Harbour schedules. "None of us knew which train would leave nextThis may lead to a law-and-order problem if CR does not make an announcement soon," a passenger said. The situation was no better on the roads with streets in certain parts left choc-a-bloc with traffic, owing to waterlogging and tree falling. Snarls choked Chembur and Kurla where trees fell on vehicles; BMC disaster cell got 25 complaints of tree falling and 10 of waterlogging.