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Blackout in north India, train services disrupted

Sujay Mehdudia

49 transmission lines in western Uttar Pradesh trip due to heavy smog after midnight on Thursday

— Photo: V.V. Krishnan

STRANDED: The power failure in the Northern Grid resulted in delays and cancellation of major trains to New Delhi on Friday. A scene at the New Delhi railway station.

NEW DELHI: Major parts of Delhi, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh plunged into darkness following the tripping of major transmission lines in western Uttar Pradesh after midnight on Thursday night, severely affecting the functioning of the Northern Grid.

This led to breakdowns in thermal power stations in Dadri (U.P.), Faridabad (Haryana) and Badarpur (Delhi), affecting the movement of nearly five dozen trains along various sections in north India.

The Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) — said the tripping of 49 transmission lines in western Uttar Pradesh took place at around midnight as heavy smog got deposited on the insulators, causing the power crisis. The worst-affected was the 400 Kv Bawana-Bamroli-Mandola transmission lines that led to a major blackout in major parts of the Capital. The sudden tripping had a rippling effect on the supply system leading to the shutdown of three major stations of the National Thermal Power Corporation, a major contributor to the Northern Grid.

“The very fact that our stations returned to normal at around 10.30 hours indicated that the problem was with the supply and transmission and nothing to do with any kind of failure of our power stations,” a senior NTPC official said.

PGCIL officials have taken steps to ascertain the cause of the breakdown and take up necessary repairs. PGCIL Chairman R.P. Singh said the foggy conditions, combined with pollution in Delhi, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, led to condensation of the transmission lines affecting the insulators causing a flash over. This led to tripping of nearly 49 lines that have since been restored and normality brought into the supply system by 10.30 a.m. on Friday.

Power failure affected the movement of nearly five dozen trains, including Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains.

The worst-affected sections were Kanpur-Ghaziabad and Tughlakabad-Agra where electricity supply remained disrupted from 3.45 a.m. to 8.30 a.m. A senior Railway official said diesel locomotives were rushed to operate stranded trains.

Passengers travelling on nearly five trains were stuck at various places. The Railways rushed diesel engines from nearby divisions to get the trains moving, while appropriate changes were made in the schedules of various trains leaving and arriving in Delhi, causing major inconvenience to passengers.

40 trains hit

Atiq Khan reports from Lucknow:

Traffic on the Delhi-Howrah Grand Chord electric traction came to a halt following disturbance in the Northern Grid. The movement of at least 40 trains was affected.

As transmission lines tripped one after the other, the supply of electricity to the towns situated west of Mainpuri in Central Uttar Pradesh, including Ghaziabad, Noida, Aligarh and Khurja, collapsed completely.

Power supply was restored at around 1 p.m. on Friday.

According to Managing Director of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited Avnish Awasthi, Ghaziabad and Aligarh were the last places in the State, where engineers restored power supply at 1 p.m. The power supply position in the State was normal, he added.

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