Major powercut in peak hours

Kolkata: There was wide-spread load-shedding in the city on Thursday morning after the tripping of three CESC units based in Budge Budge, crippling Metro services.

Taking serious note of the power disruption with the Madhyamik examination going on in the state, chief minister Mamata Banerjee asked the power department to take all possible measures to ensure that there was no inconvenience caused because of power disruptions to those taking the Madhyamik examination.

Several Madhyamik examinees, who were on their way to appear for their second language examination, were stranded in different Metro stations, and even in a rake that was stuck between Belgachia and Shyambazar Metro tunnel for nearly three minutes.

“It was so suffocating. The Metro went completely dark inside the tunnel. However, the Metro authorities somehow managed to get the train to slowly roll to Shyambazar after three minutes. We were all perspiring profusely,” Riten Sardar, a Madhyamik examinee said. Several rakes were stranded at several stations, causing inconvenience to passengers as it was peak office hours. “The disruption that brought the trains to a halt remained for almost 15 minutes from 9.53 am to 10.08 am. However, our alternative power backup managed to pull the rakes to the stations,” a senior Metro official said. It took nearly an hour to restore normal services.

Immediately after the incident, the chief minister held an emergency meeting at the state secretariat in Nabanna to take stock of the situation. State power minister Sobhondeb  Chattopadhyay, senior officials of the CESC, West Bengal State Electricity Development Corporation Limited and power department officials were present. Later, Mr Chattopadhyay told reporters that the WBSEDCL would help the CESC till the problem was resolved. It is already distributing power to the CESC, and would continue to do so. “The Purulia power station has also been made operational in view of the power requirement,” he added. Services were partially affected at some hospitals too due to the power cut.

A CESC spokesperson later in the day said that the 750 MW Budge Budge power station, which tripped on Thursday morning at 9.53 am, has returned fast to normalcy.  Unit II (250 MW) was synchronised at 3.45 pm,  followed by Unit I (250 MW) at 4.15 pm.

The third unit would be restored soon. He added that following the tripping of Budge Budge power station in the morning, the power supply to CESC areas were affected for about 15 minutes. The Restoration of CESC supply began immediately thereafter, and key supplies were restored in stages in most places within 15 minutes.  However, all supplies were restored by about 10.30 am.

A CESC spokesman thanked the WBSEDCL for helping with additional supply of power. “As an abundant precaution, we  had also procured 600 MW power from other sources,” he added.