Power supply failure hits Metro Railway services for 15 min

Metro Railway services were disrupted for 15 minutes during peak hours this morning owing to a major breakdown in power supply, causing commotion among passengers.

Electricity supply to the Metro Railway was disrupted for 15 minutes from 9.53 AM following the major breakdown in supply by private power utility CESC, a Metro Railway spokesperson said here.

"This is the first time in its history that Metro Railway services were affected owing to a power failure," the spokesperson Indrani Banerjee said.

"No passenger was affected and everyone was properly evacuated at the stations," Banerjee said.

A section of passengers in the rush hour trains were anxious at the power going off in the middle of the tunnels and also at the almost darkness at the platforms when the trains rolled into stations.

Railway staff, including security men, used torch lights to help passengers in alighting from the trains at the platforms and to move outside in an orderly manner.

"None of the trains in motion during that period stopped inside the tunnels as the rakes rolled on to the next station on inertia and were stopped by the motormen at the designated platforms using pneumatic brake system," the spokesperson said.

"There are a number of emergency lights inside every coach and these came on as soon as the regular power went off," she said adding that there was no cause for panic among passengers.

The Metro system in the city gets its power feed from four substations and that even if three of these are shut down, it can run on supply from one substation.

She said that normal Metro services were resumed at 10.08 AM.

All three units of the 750 MW Budge Budge power generating station of CESC here tripped at 9.53 AM following a network disturbance.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)