Mumbai power outage affects telecom connectivity, water supply

© Jocelyn Fernandes
Mumbai power outage affects telecom connectivity, water supply

A massive power outage, which disrupted electricity supply in majority of areas in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, affected telecom connectivity in parts of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane.

Services of three big telecoms, Bharati Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio Infocomm, were impacted. The grid failure also affected the normal supply of water in various parts of Mumbai, prompting BMC to ask citizens to use water judiciously.

A Vi spokesperson confirmed that the grid collapse had impacted mobile networks in some areas of Mumbai and Maharashtra. “While all our critical sites and a majority of the network has been working on back-up diesel gensets (DGs), we expect full restoration as soon as the power grid is fully functional,” the Economic Times quoted the spokesperson.

As per several reports, Vodafone Idea’s media briefing, scheduled to be held in Mumbai on October 12, was postponed.

The ‘select media interaction’ with senior officials from Vodafone Idea and IBM India was postponed due to power outage in Mumbai, a source told PTI.

Also Read: Mumbai electricity failure: Here are all your questions answered

A senior Bharti Airtel official said the telco’s network teams began work on restoring connectivity after several complaints from Airtel customers about mobile broadband connectivity issues.

“Our teams have been working on a war footing throughout the day, and we have made temporary power arrangements with battery back-ups and DG sets at critical sites to ensure our customers stay connected, though full-fledged normalcy can be restored only after the power grid is fully operational,” the official said, as per the report.

Read: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray orders probe into power outage in Mumbai

Meanwhile, BMC said that the water supply to various parts of the city is expected to become normal by the afternoon of October 13.

“The power supply to Bhandup-based water purification plant was affected for a few hours due to which several areas received water at low pressure,” the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in a release.

A central team comprising officials from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) would be sent to Mumbai to study the power breakdown in the city on Monday and assist the state government in finding solutions to such situations, Power Minister RK Singh said.

“A central team will visit Mumbai to identify the problem and to find out possible solutions against such breakdown,” Singh said in a statement issued by the Ministry of Power.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.