Major outage paralyses parts of CR, services disrupted until noon

A power outage on Central Railway in Mumbai halted trains for up to 30 minutes, disrupting services and causing commuter chaos until noon.

MUMBAI: A major power outage caused trains on a section of the Central Railway (CR) to stop dead in their tracks for 20-30 minutes early on Saturday, triggering a cascading effect that disrupted suburban and outstation services until noon.

The power supply lines between Kalyan-Igatpuri and Kalyan-Lonavala were disrupted due to a fire at the Thakurli-Chole Power House, which supplies electricity to these railway sections. Photo by Pramod Tambe

The outage, which had the railway and Tata Power trading charges, impacted services on the Kalyan-Kasara-Igatpuri and Kalyan-Karjat-Lonavala sections, together covering a distance of 150 km. According to railway sources, an electric supply conductor near Thakurli experienced a fault, which tripped the system and cut power to the two lines that originate at Kalyan. This left the Kalyan-Lonavala section without power in its Overhead Equipment Cables (OHE) from 6.05 am to 6.55 am, while the Kalyan-Igatpuri section was stranded from 6.08 am to 7.08 am.

Although services partially restarted when the railway diverted power from its Thane substation, the incident had already thrown train schedules out of whack. In a mega city like Mumbai, the slightest delay can cost commuters dear, given the millions that travel on the suburban railways every day. Thankfully, the outage took place on a Saturday, when commuter traffic dips, somewhat cushioning its impact. With no clarity from the railway, stranded commuters took to social media to share their experiences.

Mandar Abhyankar, a resident of Dombivali, said he and fellow commuters were updating each other on closed-group social media pages as they had no idea what the problem really was. “I was posting about the delay as and when we were getting information from members,” said Abhyankar, who is part of Mumbai Train Updates, a social media handle of rail commuters on the Central Railway.

Prafulla Shewale, a member of the Railway Passenger Association, said stations like Badlapur, Ambernath, Ulhasnagar, Asangaon and Titwala were jam-packed with commuters in the morning, as these stations experience heavy commuter traffic. “The trains started moving slowly and waited for long periods on the platforms as well,” he said.

The outage saw the Central Railway and Tata Power engaged in a war of words, each blaming the other for the incident. Dr Swapnil Nila, Chief PRO of the Central Railway, squarely blamed Tata Power. CR engineers said technical failures like this indicate systemic issues in Tata Power’s jurisdiction, and corrective measures, including enhanced maintenance schedules and thorough inspections of critical equipment, are essential to prevent a recurrence.

Tata Power flatly denied it was at fault, stating that electricity supply from the Chola substation of the Central Railway had been disrupted due to a “lightening arrestor failure” in Kalyan at 6.01 am. According to a Tata Power spokesperson, “Further, the Central Railway attempted to restore the supply from the other line, without isolating the fault at their end. Because of the fault at the railway’s end, the other line developed sparking. Supply of Tata Power from Kalyan was always available to Central Railway on one of the lines. Finally, at 6.50 am, Central Railway resumed the supply on this line, after isolation of faulty equipment at their end,” said a Tata Power spokesperson.