Power restored at Mantralaya building in Mumbai after brief outage

According to the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), the power supply was affected at 11.55am in Mantralaya, the administrative headquarters of the Maharashtra government in Mumbai

A power outage was reported in Mantralaya, the administrative headquarters of the Maharashtra government in Mumbai, just before noon on Friday, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) said, noting that its engineers restored the power supply in just seven minutes.

Mantralaya, administrative HQ of the Maharashtra govt (File Photo)

“The power supply to Mantralaya, Foreshore Road and Maharshi Karve Road was affected at 11:55 am due to a fault in the feeder. BEST's engineers and technicians restored the power supply in just seven minutes,” said Manoj Varade, PRO, BEST.

Built in 1955, and located in south Mumbai, Mantralaya is a seven-storeyed building which houses offices of most of the departments of the government of Maharashtra. The office of the chief minister, currently Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, is on the sixth floor of the building.

Friday’s incident comes just months after Mumbai witnessed a major power outage, in October last year. A grid failure resulted in massive power outages in the city and its suburban areas on October 12, 2020; while electricity supply for essential services was restored after two hours, that for other places was restored in a phase-wise manner.

However, late last month, a US-based cybersecurity firm said that its research had shown that the outage was due to the targeted activities of a China-backed hackers’ group. Incidentally, the development had taken place at a time India and China were engaged in a military standoff in the mountainous region of Ladakh.

The central government denied that there was any cyber attack, with Union power minister RK Singh saying that ‘there is no evidence’ over possible involvement of either China or Pakistan. The Maharashtra government, on the other hand, said that a preliminary report of the cyber cell of the state police indicated that there was, indeed, ‘a cyber sabotage by some foreign countries.’