The Western Railway has launched an investigation into a major power outage, due to which all trains on the line between Churchgate and Grant Road, including all stations in between, were significantly affected due to a power interruption in south Mumbai for half an hour this morning.

“WR is investigating the incident. Several trains stood still as all signals turned red and had to be manually operated. The power cut also affected offices, as there was no power at the Churchgate heritage building, which houses several offices in the WR headquarters building. The power cut happened at 10:20 am and was restored in phases by 11 am. WR has a three-level backup plan, and all three failed this morning, which is quite unprecedented,” an official said.

The BEST said they had no role to play, as all its power supplies remained normal. “BEST has no role to play in the power supply to Western Railway and its network,” BEST spokesperson Sudas Sawant said.