80 percent power restored in Delhi

After a near-complete blackout following a breakdown of the National Grid in the early hours of Monday, power supply was restored to almost 80 percent areas in the national capital by noon, officials said.

A failure in the northern power grid at 2.32 a.m. affected power supply to seven northern states, including Delhi. Officials said the failure took place somewhere near Agra, tripping the entire system.

Power supply was also hit in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir.  "Power supply has been restored in nearly 80 percent of Delhi," an official from Delhi power supplier BSES told IANS.

According to Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, nearly 60 percent of electricity supply had been restored and efforts to restore the power supply were on "on a war footing". Northern Railways, Delhi Metro and other vital services such as water treatment plants were affected.

The power outage led to an acute water problem across Delhi with taps running dry.  Delhi Metro services could be restored completely only after two hours (from 6 a.m. when it begins) at around 8.45 a.m. By 7 a.m., only 25 percent of the services had been restored.

"Services in all the six lines became normal by 8.45 a.m. We are receiving hydel power from Bhutan on priority basis," a Delhi Metro official said. He added that Delhi Metro was amongst the emergency services, including the prime minister's residence and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), being provided power. Power failure led to a majority of traffic signals not working, causing massive traffic jams during office hours.

V.V. Sharma, general manager of Power System Operation Corporation Limited (PSOCL), told IANS that restoration was on and the situation was now "good" in most states. He said a three-member committee had been appointed for looking into the reasons of the failure. Exact details would be given only after the committee came out with its report, Sharma said but did not  give a timeline.

"The trouble resulted in power outage in the entire northern region, but for parts of Badarpur in south Delhi, Narora and Simbhauli in Uttar Pradesh and Bhinma in Rajasthan," a statement from PSOCL said. According to a Northern Railway spokesperson, nearly 100 trains were disrupted but traffic was back to normal by 8 a.m. Around 45 local trains in Delhi was also effected.

"Power supply has resumed, but several trains are plying four-five hours late. We are holding back goods trains and giving priority to passenger trains," the spokesperson said.

"On priority basis the vital services and VIP areas were first provided power, most of the services have now been restored," a BSES official told IANS. Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport functioned normally with the help of  generators.