India's financial hub city of Mumbai went completely dark on Monday after it experienced what would be its worse blackout in decades. The outage, which lasted for several hours, caused massive disruptions throughout the city's airport, train, and stock market systems.
While the rest of the country may be prone to occasional power outages, Mumbai has largely been immune to such issues as suppliers have made certain that the city is supplied with ample electricity. According to the city's main power supplier, Tata Power, the disruption was reportedly caused by a series of events that led to its power substations switching off at the same time.
The outage, which started at around 10 in the morning, halted major economic activity in the city. More than 20 million people living in the megacity remained without power for hours throughout the day. The state of Maharashtra government said that it has already ordered an investigation in the matter to determine the exact cause of the failure.
The outage halted nearly three dozen local suburban trains throughout the day, stranding millions of commuters. Trains had to be rescheduled because of the outage. Local residents and employees in Mumbai heavily depend on the city's train networks for transportation.
The country's power minister, R.K. Singh, mentioned in a statement on Monday that there was no major problem with its national grid system. He explained the outage was limited to Mumbai and its surrounding areas due to some issues with the state transmission system.
"A fault arose in two lines simultaneously, and that overloaded the remaining system. The central electricity authority will work it out as to how it started and what can we do to strengthen the system," Singh stated during a televised interview.
The power failure is being considered by Indian government officials as a huge "embarrassment for the nation" as it had happened in one of its richest and most modern cities. The event will likely serve as a significant stain on the country's efforts to promote the city as the premier destination for international investments.
India is working to attract foreign investments away from China and to establish the country as the world's next manufacturing center. The government has enacted several measures to support the initiative, which included the provision of incentives for manufacturers to increase their investments.
