Mumbai was shrouded in a dark blanket last evening. While most residents sighed about the fact that load-shedding had Mumbai under its grasp too, the papers today explain it as a Power Collapse. The far suburbs of Thane and Kalyan have been struggling under load-shedding induced power-cuts from quite some time now, other parts of Mumbai thought of as protected from such issues, too got its first taste yesterday.

Mulund and Matunga, nearer home to the heart of the city, had been complaining of fluctuating power the entire day yesterday, until it finally went off for good between the 4 to 5 slot. Bandra to Borivali experienced the power cut too. But it has been noticed, surprisingly so, that the time the power cut lasted receded towards the South of Mumbai. The phase out started at and around 5 in the Western line. While Bandra residents got the electricity back within half an hour, Santacruz residents were illuminated after an hour or two. Andheri and Juhu suffered for three hours while Laxmi Industrial Estate area had another half an hour extended to that Malad and further north got their electricity back even later.

Interestingly, Town, or South Bombay, did not experience the blackout at all.

An employee of Laxmi Industrial Estate said, ” Load shedding has started. This is going to be the case everyday now from 5 to 8″
A fruit Seller at Andheri Station said, ” The Municipal people had warned us that this will happen. We dint know that it would actually happen.”
And a fuming resident from Juhu said, ” The papers announced Load Shedding in Mumbai the day before, and it started today. But other things they promise never start on time. Take the Metro Rail for example!!”

An official from Prakashghad, or MSEB, under the condition of anonymity said that that malls were eating up into the power limit of Mumbai, but they cannot be stopped. He also said that they might even have their own generators. But when the blackout happened, all the malls too were devoid of light.

A Times of India Pune link claims that the blackout was all over the western region of Maharashtra. Pune, Konkan and Mumbai.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Pune/Blackout_in_state_students_hit_hard/articleshow/1680368.cms ^[1]