Power supply is being restored partially in all of the seven affected states since 9 a.m., but there are large areas that are still bearing the brunt of power cuts. Essential services have been largely disrupted and life has been thrown out of gear.
Initial reports suggested heavy over-drawal of electricity by some states as the reason for the glitch that left services like railways, metro trains and airport affected. Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said a three member committee has been mandated to investigate the fault.
He said power supply will be resumed in the next three to four hours across the affected region.
All seven northern region states of Delhi, UP, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand and Chandigarh have been hit and services including hospitals and rail services severely disturbed.
Train services were disrupted in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, leaving a large number of passengers stranded. Officials said over 200 train schedules were disrupted on account of the power failure.
In the capital, Metro services took a hit and could function with only 25 per cent trains since starting services on Monday morning at 5 a.m.
Power supply to the Prime Minister's house and hospitals like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences was ensured by switching to power from Bhutan, and from power sourced from the Badarpur Thermal Power plant.
In Delhi, officials of the power department said emergency power is being supplied through the eastern and western regions, and efforts are being made to ensure there is no disruption to essential services like the hospitals, Metro and the installations of the Delhi Jal Board.
Though there were no reports of flights being disturbed by the power cuts, some services at the airport were affected.
“The failure in northern grid has disturbed the normal schedule of citizens of Delhi and other northern states. However, DIAL would like to confirm that all flight operations at IGIA are normal with no cancellations and delays. The Power Supply was restored to DG Systems instantaneously and has been running smoothly for the last 7 hours and will continue so until the normal supply is restored,” said a spokesperson for DIAL.
