Modi govt to blame for power outage in Mumbai: Maha CM

Mumbai: Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today blamed the Narendra Modi government for the power outage in several parts of south and central Mumbai. The power outage, which started at about 9:45 am, was caused after a unit of Tata Power’s Trombay plant, the primary source of electricity for the city, tripped. The tripping has resulted in load reduction in Parel, Mahalaxmi, Dharavi, Chembur and Grant Road areas of south Mumbai. “The Centre is responsible for it. At the state level, we are taking all possible measures to resolve the issue. But, the centre must resolve the issue at the earliest. We are also ready to cooperate with the Centre on the issue. If not, then the power crisis will aggravate in the state,” Chavan said while addressing a press conference from party’s state headquarters in Dadar on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_1675649” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan. Agencies[/caption] “The power situation in the state is worrisome. The power supply companies such as TATA, Adani and Indiabulls have reduced the supply citing the high tax imposed by the Centre on their plants. It is despite having the power purchase treaties between the state government and these power companies. At present, there is shortage of 3000 mg wt in the state,” said Chavan adding that the Maharashtra requires total 13,000 mg wt. He added that he had written to the Prime Minister about the issue, requesting him to convene a meeting of all chief ministers. “I have raising this issue for the last two weeks when PM Modi came to Solapur for a program. But, it seems that the centre has not taken the serious note of the issue,” he said alleging the Centre had failed to coordinate with the state government. In a statement, Tata Power explained why the tripping caused such widespread outage: “This [the tripping] impacted controlling loading on the 220Kv Kharghar-Nerul-Sonkar-Trombay tie line which supplies power to the city," the statement said. Most affected consumers were getting electricity supply through state-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) since no private player distributes power to the island city. The BEST, which gets its power supply from Tata Power, has around 10 lakh consumers in the city. In a separate statement the BEST said that after the Tata Power unit tripped in the morning, it was faced with transmission constraints in order to source power from outside the city. “Due to this, rotational load shedding has been imposed by Tata Power in Dadar, Mahim, Dharavi, Sion, Prabhadevi, Parel, Sewree, Byculla, Chinchpokli, Girgaon, Mumbai Central and part of Hutatma Chowk, Ballard Pier, Nariman Point and area around Metro Cinema,” the BEST said.