Mumbai faces major power outage, rail services disrupted

Large parts of India’s financial capital Mumbai and its suburbs, on Monday, faced a power blackout that disrupted train services and threw life out of gear for millions of residents.

The power failure was due to incoming electric supply failure, the city’s electricity supply board wrote on its Twitter account.

The regional railways said the breakdown was due to a grid failure at the Tata Power Company.

Signals on key intersections stopped working, forcing police to regulate traffic.

Several trains of the local rail network, the lifeline for the city’s 20 million inhabitants, were suspended.

News channels showed train commuters walking after services stopped.

In spite of the disruption to power supply, Mumbai’s international airport and the stock exchange were functioning normally.

Mumbai’s municipal commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal, held a meeting to ensure that emergency power supplies to hospitals in the city, among the worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic in India.

State Energy Minister Nitin Raut said the authorities were working to resolve complaints and would restore the power soon.

Mumbaikars took to social media minutes after the power failure, with a number of reactions including memes and jokes about the situation.

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“Entire city in power outage, somehow managing this message, Keep calm all shall be well,’’ Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan wrote on Twitter.

Such a large-scale power failure is rare for India’s financial hub.

India’s last major power outage occurred in July 2012, when transport services and water supplies were disrupted across six states and the national capital New Delhi.

(dpa/NAN)