Delhi goes 'powerless' as northern grid collapses

Almost entire Delhi went without power for about eight hours today due to the collapse of the Northern Grid, putting people to misery on a humid day when water distribution and Metro services were largely affected.

Top Delhi Power Department officials said the technical failure near Agra resulted in the collapse of the Northern Grid, which supplies electricity to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajashtan, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

The main casualty of the power failure was the water distribution system as well as Metro services but operations at the airport remained largely unaffected as diesel generating back-up system was put to use.

Metro train services on all six corridors were affected since morning and the Metro was able to run trains only from 7 am, an hour later than the usual time of 6 am.

When the services began at 7 am, only 25 per cent of trains were put on all six corridors affecting commuters. The services were fully restored finally by 9 am.

As there was no power, all the water treatment plants in the city could not treat water, affecting the entire distribution system in the city.

Officials said various power generation plants running on hydel, coal and gas had to shut operations due to the failure and power supply could be fully restored in the afternoon.

"Delhi government or power distribution companies have no role to play in this crisis. It was a major technical fault in the Grid. We expect the situation to be normalised in the next four-five hours (by afternoon)," they said.

Delhi government officials said Power Minister Harun Yusuf is constantly monitoring the situation and officials are in touch with the Union Power Ministry and Power Grid Corporation, which maintains the Northern Grid. Officials in the power discom companies said the areas under their jurisdiction had to suffer power cuts as supply was snapped.

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