Post date: Jul 30, 2012 12:26:7 PM
The lights in Delhi and seven states went out about 2 am (9:30 p.m. British time) and had not been restored by the morning rush-hour, leaving the capital's workers sweltering overnight, then stranded at metro stations in the morning as trains were cancelled.
Commuters in New Delhi had to suffer as services on all six lines of Delhi Metro were affected due to failure at the northern grid that supplies power to the modern transport system and no trains were available.
A massive grid failure in Delhi and much of northern India left more than 300 million people without electricity on Monday, in one of the worst blackouts to hit the country in more than a decade.
NEW DELHI, INDIA (JULY 30, 2012) (ANI) - A massive grid failure in Delhi and much of northern India left more than 300 million people without electricity on Monday (July 30), in one of the worst blackouts to hit the country in more than a decade.
Commuters waiting at stations looked quite perturbed because of the disruption in metro services, and blamed the government for the power failure.
"Nobody has any information, people are waiting from last four hours and there is a light failure in the whole northern India. The government is not concerned about what is happening around and everybody is worried, the passengers are worried, who are coming here," said a commuter, Vijay Kaul.
Blackouts are frequent in much of the country, including major cities. Chaos reigned on Delhi's always-hectic roads as stop lights failed.
The Traffic Police said that the areas where power has not been restored will be physically manned till the situation is normal.
Train services were also affected in Kanpur city of Uttar Pradesh. The passengers said that few trains were running on diesel but it was not of much help.
"We were told that the northern grid has failed, so the train would be delayed by 15 minutes, but the train is already half an hour late. We are facing lot of trouble. We also heard that the trains are being run on diesel but how will these trains cross the other trains that are stranded on the tracks. So that will cause a lot of problem and the trains may get more delayed," said a commuter, Rajesh Kumar.
Authorities made restoring services to hospitals and transport systems a priority. By mid-morning electricity had returned to parts of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, a state with more people than Brazil. Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir were also hit.
There has been a massive power breakdown in northern India, which is said to be the worst northern grid failure since 2001.
There has been no power in seven states, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal, since 2.30 last night, when the northern grid collapsed.
The power failure has hit the water and electricity supply across the seven states.
Commuters in Chandigarh city were seen waiting at the platform in long queues.
"We are facing lot of problems. I have to reach at my duty place on time. The train arrived at 10:20 but it is still not sure when it will leave and everybody is worried," said a commuter, Pradeep Kapoor.
The Chandigarh Station Superintendent, Praveen Kumar, said the crisis was to be resolved by 7:30 am in the morning but they are still waiting for further information.
"The railway failure is going on from 2:30 in the night and all the trains that run by electricity are stationed at the platform. The trains will commute as soon as the power failure is corrected. As per the latest information, the crisis was to be resolved by 7:30 but let's see what will happen," said Kumar.
The restoration of the grid may take a few more hours, even as the engineers are making all efforts to restore it since early morning.
India has a peak-hour power deficit of about 12 percent, slowing the economy. Delhi's private power company, BSES, said northern India last suffered such a major outage in 2001.
About 40 percent of Indians, or 500 million people, lack electricity. Delays in opening new power plants and coal mines, among other things, have held back capacity.