The Maharashtra Government on Wednesday ordered a comprehensive inquiry into power outages experienced by residents of different parts of the city and its suburbs on Tuesday, in the aftermath of the tripping of a 500 MW unit of Tata Power Company (TPC) at Trombay in north-east Mumbai. Taking serious cognisance, the Maharashtra Cabinet appointed Ajoy Mehta, Principal Secretary of Energy department, to conduct a detailed inquiry into the circumstances leading to the power blackouts in various parts of metropolls and its suburbs.
“Owing power outages in different parts of the city, people had to put with considerable inconvenience. The periods of power load shedding varied from locality to locality. The one-man inquiry committee will fix responsibility for the power outages.
The committee will also suggest short-term and long-term measures to ensure against such failures in future,” Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said, after the weekly State Cabinet meeting. Chavan said that the inquiry committee had been asked to submit its report to the state government within a week. The unit 5 of Tata Power Company at Trombay tripped at 0940 hrs on Tuesday, resulting in rotational load-shedding in areas like Dadar, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Mahim, Dharavi, Sion, Prabhadevi, Parel, Sewree, Byculla, Chinchpokli, Girgaum, Mumbai Central and parts of Hutatma Chowk, Ballard Pier and Nariman Point in south Mumbai.
Following the power outrage, thousands of residential premises and offices in the affected had gone without power for several hours during the day. The affected consumers were mostly of the BMC-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking which distributes power in the Island city. The BEST, which gets its power supply from Tata Power Company, has around 10 lakh consumers in the city.