Maha power outage: Minister reiterates sabotage probe

Mumbai, Oct 14 Maharashtra Energy Minister Nitin Raut on Wednesday said "foul play or sabotage" has not been ruled out in the mega-power shortage that tripped Mumbai Metropolitan Region on Monday and added that stringent action will be taken against all found guilty.

Addressing the media, he said that the interim report of a probe committee set up by the state government will submit its report in a week and its recommendations would be implemented.

Besides, a central team which came here on Tuesday is also probing into the incident that left large parts of MMR without power for periods ranging from 2-9 hours, playing havoc with the people, railways, traffic, business and commercial activities.

"There are certain protocols that must be adhered to whenever any maintenance work is taken up. We shall investigate whether these protocols were followed or not by the officials of MahaVitaran… However, we don't rule out the possibility of sabotage or foul play and stringent action will be taken against those found guilty," Raut asserted.

Late on Tuesday, in a cryptic statement, Raut had said: "Possibility of a sabotage cannot be ruled out in respect of the Power trip that resulted in blackout on Monday dated 12.10.20 at Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane."

According to officials on Monday, some maintenance work was taken up on the 400KV line in Kalwa and entire load was shifted to the line 2, which in turn tripped owing to some technical glitches and the cascading effect hit almost the entire MMR comprising Mumbai, Thane, parts of Palghar and Raigad districts.

While private distributors like Adani, Tata and BEST had restored supply in their respective regions on Monday, some areas served by MahaVitaran remained without power for another around 24 hours, and resumed on Tuesday.

Targeting the Minister, Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Atul Bhatkalkar asked Raut when he came to know it was "a sabotage" whether he informed Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in the matter.

However, Raut responded by saying some people were trying to malign his department but the probe reports would reveal everything.

( With inputs from IANS )