Mumbai: Power outage affects local train services, commuters hit hard

Power outage in Mumbai on Monday

brought the local trains, considered as the city's lifeline, to a standstill for nearly two-and-a-half hours, causing hardships to commuters, railway officials said.

As fans and lights inside the trains also stopped working, many passengers preferred to jump out and walk on tracks to reach the nearest station or road.

According to railway officials, this was a rare occurrence in the recent past when the suburban services on both the Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) routes came to a halt due to power grid failure.

Last month, both the CR and WR services, which are currently being run only for essential services staff in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, were suspended due to water- logging on tracks after heavy rains.

Due to a power grid failure in the financial capital on Monday morning, all the suburban and long distance trains here were held up on tracks from 10.05 am, officials said.

The Central Railway's services on the harbour line, that connects the city to neighbouring Navi Mumbai, resumed first at 10.55 am, the CR said in a release.

Its main line network from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to Kasara (in neighbouring Thane) and Khopoli (in Raigad) resumed at 12.26 pm, the release said.

According to the Western Railway, which operates local trains between Churchgate and Dahanu (in Palghar) stations, its services were restored at 12.20 pm.

"As power supply was restored on the Western Railway's Mumbai suburban section, all overhead equipment charged at 12.20 pm and the suburban train services were restored," a WR spokesperson said.

Currently, the Central Railway and the Western Railway are collectively operating 953 suburban services every day.

Because of the power failure, several special outstation train services were also hit, forcing the railway authorities to reschedule their departure.

The Central Railway in its release said it has rescheduled the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Gorakhpur (train no. 01055), LTT-Gorakhpur (train no. 02542), LTT- Thiruvananthapuram, LTT-Darbhanga andLTT-Varanasi special trains.

The WR said its Bandra Terminus- Amritsar clone special train, Bandra Terminus-Amritsar Pashchim Express, Ahmedabad-Mumbai Central Karnavati Express,Sayaji Nagri Express and Bandra Terminus-Jodhpur Surya Nagri Express were affected due to the power disruption.