Friday, March 7, 2008 (New Delhi)


Electricity supply has been restored in Delhi and surrounding areas of Northern India and train services are also back on track, hours after a fault in the Northern Grid led to outages in Delhi, and parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Around 50 transmission lines tripped at about 3 am. The system was restored at about 9 am. Powergrid officials said heavy fog on Thursday night had got the high-tension wires wet causing frequent tripping of transmission lines.Earlier, large parts of northern India, including the national capital, remained without electricity for over ten hours on Friday as heavy smog tripped transmission lines, affecting railway services in the region.Senior Power Grid Corporation officials attributed the breakdown to fog combined with pollution in Delhi, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Deposit of pollution particles on transmission lines was attributed as the reason for tripping, which officials described as a common phenomenon during winter - which has been unusually long this year.''Normalcy was restored at around 1030 hrs,'' SK Soonee, Executive Director (System Operation) of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), said.''Fog combined with pollution gets deposited on insulators and causes a flash over. This has been happening for quite some time. However, the situation is getting aggravated now. We are trying to find a permanent solution to the problem,'' he said.Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana were the most hit due to the failure in the lines.Train service disruptedTrain movement was badly affected in the region due to the power failure, with the worst affected sections being Ferozabad-Dadri and Tughlakabad-Palwal lines, where electricity supply was disrupted since 0345 hrs and 0615 hrs respectively.The power failure, however, was first reported at midnight, officials said. Traffic in the region was badly affected by the power failure, with the worse affected sections being Ferozabad-Dadri and Tughlakabad-Palwal lines, where electricity supply was disrupted since 0345 am and 0615 am respectively, a senior Railway official said.''The electricity supply to the overhead cable, which supplies power to the engine, was completely down, bringing the movement of trains to a halt,'' he said.The officials said the Railways was taking all emergency measures and diesel engines were being dispatched to resume the services.''We are not getting power supply due to power failure in the Northern Grid,'' an official said.A passenger on the Gwalior-bound Shatabdi Express said: ''There is no train movement since the last two hours. We are completely stuck at the station. They are announcing that diesel engines are coming to take the train forward.''