Power supply restored in N India,rail services normal

New Delhi, Mar 7 (UNI) Power supply to most parts of Delhi and surrounding states was disrupted today for several hours, affecting normal life and train services after 49 power lines of the northern Grid tripped following smog coupled with polutants.

The power supply was restored after nearly 11 hours with West and East parts of Delhi being the worst effected. Power supply in Haryana and West Uttar Pradesh was also restored by late afternoon.

The train services which were severely affected due to grid tripping also limped back to normalcy with only a few trains running behind schedule.

According to Delhi Transco, around 0430 hrs, lines carrying power from Rihand, Singrauli, Tala to Dadri and Delhi tripped causing disruptions of power in Delhi. A total of 49 lines of 400 KV Power Grid had tripped, including six in Delhi.

Complete generation at Dadri of about 1600 MW as well as HVDC Line from Rihand to Delhi also tripped, affecting supply to Bawana and Bamnauli.

However, Badarpur Thermal Power Station, Rajghat Power House and IP Station survived and were supplying power to South Delhi, Central Delhi and essential services such as Delhi Metro, Delhi Airport and Water Works. Supplies upto 1500 MW were affected in Delhi area.

Senior Power Grid Corporation officials attributed the breakdown to fog combined with pollution in Delhi, Haryana and West UP. Fog combined with pollution gets deposited on insulators and causes a flash over. This has been happening for quite some time. Train 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. Traffic in the region was badly affected by 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.

Northern Railway had detained mail and expess trains for minimum possible time, officials said.

A report from Lucknow said Rail traffic on the busy Howrah-Delhi route came to a standstill for over seven hours early this morning following tripping of power lines. About 40 important trains including Rajdhani Express and the Shatabdi Express were stranded causing problems for the passengers.

The same route had witnessed distruption yesterday also due to derailment of 15 wagons of a goods train.

Railway officials here said most of the trains were stranded at different stations between Tundla and Delhi.

The services of the Delhi Metro, however, remained largely unaffected by the Northern Grid collapse. Despite the tripping, services of the Delhi Metro continued throughout the crisis, a spokesperson of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said.

''Minimum delay was caused upto a few minutes that too only when the voltage became very low early in the morning but the DMRC was able to recover fast,''the spokesperson said.

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