India whining!
1 Aug 2012 7:07 AM IST
GRID COLLAPSE PUTS NATION INTO CHAOS
For the second consecutive day on Tuesday, a large part of the nation was hit by power crisis, albeit on a much larger scale. The failure of more than one power grids affected 19 states, including north, east and Northeast regions, paralysing essential services, such as rail, hospitals and Metro operations, besides causing major traffic snarls in many cities.
At 1.02 pm on Tuesday, the outage incident occurred on the northern, eastern and Northeastern grids, affecting around 600 million people in one of the world's biggest-ever blackouts. Power Grid sources say that overdrawing of power by several states, including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, by about 4,000 MW caused the trip once again near Agra on Tuesday.
The states hit on Tuesday include Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and the seven Northeastern states.
A railway spokesperson said, 'Around three lakh rail passengers were stuck in over 300 trains after the power failure crippled operations. Trains with diesel engines were being organised to carry stranded passengers.'
The Delhi Metro stopped running for over an hour and some passengers were trapped inside till an emergency supply helped trains reach the nearest station.
Traffic signals on the blink had the capital stuck in traffic jams. Some 4,000 traffic police personnel in Delhi were immediately deployed on the roads to bring some semblance of order, as 775 traffic signals across the city stopped working.
The union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who has now been moved to the home ministry, said, 'The crisis was caused by some states that exceeded their quota, placing the Northern Grid under considerable strain. This is the second day that something like this has happened. I have given instructions that whoever overdraws power should be punished.'
Officials said that states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal would take eight to 12 hours to restore power. The chairperson and managing director of Power Grid Corporation R N Nayak said, 'Close to 50 per cent of power [supply] had been restored in the Northeastern region and 20 per cent in the north. The failure was due to … [overdrawing] of power by some states and that a full inquiry would reveal the nature of the problem.'
Meanwhile, the Southern Grid and Western Grid were supplying power to help restore services, the officials said.
1,400 DELHI METRO RIDERS EVACUATED
Last Saturday, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) had carried out a mock drill with citizens across 12 metro station spread over eight districts in the national capital. Little would it have imagined that this exercise would be put to test within three days, as Northern Grid failed on Tuesday afternoon bringing the metro operation to a grinding halt and trapping passengers.
According to a Delhi Metro spokesperson Sushma Gaur, about 1.3 lakh passengers were travelling in about 100 trains when the power breakdown took place. 'Our teams were deployed across 11 station as soon as we received information about the crisis caused by power failure,' said Kuldeep Singh Gangar, special secretary, DDMA.
The skills of the DDMA personnel were put to real test at the Patel Chowk station in the heart of New Delhi, where over 1,400 passenger were trapped inside a train, which was approaching the station from the Rajiv Chowk side.
According to sources in Delhi Metro, the operation to rescue these passengers at Patel Chowk took about an hour and the station could be cleared only around 2.15 pm. 'The operation involved officials of the DDMA, Metro, the fire service and the CISF personnel,' added a Delhi Metro source.
BJP ATTACKS UPA OVER POWER CRISIS
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit out at the Congress-led UPA government as the northern and eastern grids tripped on Tuesday, and said it shows complete mismanagement as well as policy failure.
BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said this is total failure of the UPA government in the power sector, which is manifested in the total blackout of the two days and the grid failure.
‘60 crore people of the country, half of the population, is affected in 19 states. It is a huge failure of the management in the power sector by the UPA government,’ said Javadekar.
‘Their failure is twin failure. It is management failure as well as the policy failure. As we are witnessing policy paralysis in different sectors, we are witnessing policy paralysis in power sector also,’ he added.
Javadekar said both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde owe an apology to the nation over the power crisis.
‘This is what the government is accountable for. The power minister owes an answer. The Prime Minister owes an answer to the nation why this is happening. This lowers the esteem of the country in the eyes of the world because people are watching. And you cannot provide the electricity for two consecutive days without tracing the fault,’ said Javadekar. ‘We hope that they press the crisis button immediately and do what is needed technically as well as managerially to provide electricity to all,’ he added.
Javadekar further said there is no real implementation of the electricity act, the major reforms in the power sector, which provided a competitive market and the maximum power.
‘The management failure and policy failure has put people in dark. And for last two days, the country is suffering. This is unheard of and unparallel things are happening,’ he added. Shinde, however, earlier on Tuesady said power for all essential services will be restored in an hour.
Shinde said all alternative arrangements have been made to deal with the present crisis.
‘Alternative arrangements have been made, but still we will have to wait for some time. It will take an hour and a half,’ he said.
Shinde further informed the western region and other places are providing power at the moment.
‘I have been informed that northern and eastern, both the grids have failed. I have put in all my people at the job. The power grid chairman is working. Now, we are getting power from the western region and some other places,’ he said.
Power supply was disrupted in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Assam and Punjab.
WEST BENGAL BLACKED OUT, MAMATA DECLARES HOLIDAY
Lakhs of people across West Bengal had a harrowing time as the state witnessed a total blackout triggered by the Eastern Power Grid’s sudden collapse. The power outage also left thousands of passengers in several trains stranded.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered all government offices to declare a holiday for the rest of the day to enable the employees to go home and appealed to people to maintain calm.
‘The Eastern Grid has collapsed...it is a big disaster. All 18 districts of the state are going to face power outage. We have started the repair work. But normalcy can’t be restored before tonight as repair work will take at least 10-12 hours,’ Gupta said.
‘The areas of Kolkata, which are under CESC, are having a normal situation. But apart from those areas, all the districts will be severely affected. We have asked the CESC officials to see that at least these areas of Kolkata don’t face any power problem,’ said Gupta.
‘We appeal to everybody not to panic. The repair work is going on at emergency basis. Normalcy will be restored as soon as possible. We had decided to declare a holiday for the rest of the day to enable the employees to go home safely,’ she said.
MINERS TRAPPED
The massive power failure in India lead to 200 coal miners getting trapped in West Bengal. According to officials, as the grids collapsed around 1 pm, the miners in Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) got trapped in Sodepur and Satgram in Burdwan district. They were rescued after the day-long efforts. ‘Following efforts by the administration, emergency power supply was arranged and miners saved,’ a police official said.
HOLIDAY IN BENGAL
The West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee acted on the Eastern Grid failure by ordering all government offices to declare holiday for the day. She asked people of the state to main calm. Lakhs of people across West Bengal had a harrowing time as the state witnessed a total blackout on Tuesday. The grid, which collapsed in the afternoon, led to severe power outage in all the 18 districts of the state, the state power minister Manish Gupta said.
300 TRAINS STOP
The power outage in northern and eastern India created chaos on the tracks. Over three lakh passengers were stranded on Tuesday as about 300 trains could not move due to power failure. In all, six railway zones were affected. The railways has started using more diesel locomotives to clear rail traffic. Its officials said that it was able to restore normal operations in the northern region, as power was arranged from Dadri, Malwa and Phaphund.
For the second consecutive day on Tuesday, a large part of the nation was hit by power crisis, albeit on a much larger scale. The failure of more than one power grids affected 19 states, including north, east and Northeast regions, paralysing essential services, such as rail, hospitals and Metro operations, besides causing major traffic snarls in many cities.
At 1.02 pm on Tuesday, the outage incident occurred on the northern, eastern and Northeastern grids, affecting around 600 million people in one of the world's biggest-ever blackouts. Power Grid sources say that overdrawing of power by several states, including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, by about 4,000 MW caused the trip once again near Agra on Tuesday.
The states hit on Tuesday include Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and the seven Northeastern states.
A railway spokesperson said, 'Around three lakh rail passengers were stuck in over 300 trains after the power failure crippled operations. Trains with diesel engines were being organised to carry stranded passengers.'
The Delhi Metro stopped running for over an hour and some passengers were trapped inside till an emergency supply helped trains reach the nearest station.
Traffic signals on the blink had the capital stuck in traffic jams. Some 4,000 traffic police personnel in Delhi were immediately deployed on the roads to bring some semblance of order, as 775 traffic signals across the city stopped working.
The union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who has now been moved to the home ministry, said, 'The crisis was caused by some states that exceeded their quota, placing the Northern Grid under considerable strain. This is the second day that something like this has happened. I have given instructions that whoever overdraws power should be punished.'
Officials said that states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal would take eight to 12 hours to restore power. The chairperson and managing director of Power Grid Corporation R N Nayak said, 'Close to 50 per cent of power [supply] had been restored in the Northeastern region and 20 per cent in the north. The failure was due to … [overdrawing] of power by some states and that a full inquiry would reveal the nature of the problem.'
Meanwhile, the Southern Grid and Western Grid were supplying power to help restore services, the officials said.
1,400 DELHI METRO RIDERS EVACUATED
Last Saturday, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) had carried out a mock drill with citizens across 12 metro station spread over eight districts in the national capital. Little would it have imagined that this exercise would be put to test within three days, as Northern Grid failed on Tuesday afternoon bringing the metro operation to a grinding halt and trapping passengers.
According to a Delhi Metro spokesperson Sushma Gaur, about 1.3 lakh passengers were travelling in about 100 trains when the power breakdown took place. 'Our teams were deployed across 11 station as soon as we received information about the crisis caused by power failure,' said Kuldeep Singh Gangar, special secretary, DDMA.
The skills of the DDMA personnel were put to real test at the Patel Chowk station in the heart of New Delhi, where over 1,400 passenger were trapped inside a train, which was approaching the station from the Rajiv Chowk side.
According to sources in Delhi Metro, the operation to rescue these passengers at Patel Chowk took about an hour and the station could be cleared only around 2.15 pm. 'The operation involved officials of the DDMA, Metro, the fire service and the CISF personnel,' added a Delhi Metro source.
BJP ATTACKS UPA OVER POWER CRISIS
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit out at the Congress-led UPA government as the northern and eastern grids tripped on Tuesday, and said it shows complete mismanagement as well as policy failure.
BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said this is total failure of the UPA government in the power sector, which is manifested in the total blackout of the two days and the grid failure.
‘60 crore people of the country, half of the population, is affected in 19 states. It is a huge failure of the management in the power sector by the UPA government,’ said Javadekar.
‘Their failure is twin failure. It is management failure as well as the policy failure. As we are witnessing policy paralysis in different sectors, we are witnessing policy paralysis in power sector also,’ he added.
Javadekar said both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde owe an apology to the nation over the power crisis.
‘This is what the government is accountable for. The power minister owes an answer. The Prime Minister owes an answer to the nation why this is happening. This lowers the esteem of the country in the eyes of the world because people are watching. And you cannot provide the electricity for two consecutive days without tracing the fault,’ said Javadekar. ‘We hope that they press the crisis button immediately and do what is needed technically as well as managerially to provide electricity to all,’ he added.
Javadekar further said there is no real implementation of the electricity act, the major reforms in the power sector, which provided a competitive market and the maximum power.
‘The management failure and policy failure has put people in dark. And for last two days, the country is suffering. This is unheard of and unparallel things are happening,’ he added. Shinde, however, earlier on Tuesady said power for all essential services will be restored in an hour.
Shinde said all alternative arrangements have been made to deal with the present crisis.
‘Alternative arrangements have been made, but still we will have to wait for some time. It will take an hour and a half,’ he said.
Shinde further informed the western region and other places are providing power at the moment.
‘I have been informed that northern and eastern, both the grids have failed. I have put in all my people at the job. The power grid chairman is working. Now, we are getting power from the western region and some other places,’ he said.
Power supply was disrupted in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Assam and Punjab.
WEST BENGAL BLACKED OUT, MAMATA DECLARES HOLIDAY
Lakhs of people across West Bengal had a harrowing time as the state witnessed a total blackout triggered by the Eastern Power Grid’s sudden collapse. The power outage also left thousands of passengers in several trains stranded.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered all government offices to declare a holiday for the rest of the day to enable the employees to go home and appealed to people to maintain calm.
‘The Eastern Grid has collapsed...it is a big disaster. All 18 districts of the state are going to face power outage. We have started the repair work. But normalcy can’t be restored before tonight as repair work will take at least 10-12 hours,’ Gupta said.
‘The areas of Kolkata, which are under CESC, are having a normal situation. But apart from those areas, all the districts will be severely affected. We have asked the CESC officials to see that at least these areas of Kolkata don’t face any power problem,’ said Gupta.
‘We appeal to everybody not to panic. The repair work is going on at emergency basis. Normalcy will be restored as soon as possible. We had decided to declare a holiday for the rest of the day to enable the employees to go home safely,’ she said.
MINERS TRAPPED
The massive power failure in India lead to 200 coal miners getting trapped in West Bengal. According to officials, as the grids collapsed around 1 pm, the miners in Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) got trapped in Sodepur and Satgram in Burdwan district. They were rescued after the day-long efforts. ‘Following efforts by the administration, emergency power supply was arranged and miners saved,’ a police official said.
HOLIDAY IN BENGAL
The West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee acted on the Eastern Grid failure by ordering all government offices to declare holiday for the day. She asked people of the state to main calm. Lakhs of people across West Bengal had a harrowing time as the state witnessed a total blackout on Tuesday. The grid, which collapsed in the afternoon, led to severe power outage in all the 18 districts of the state, the state power minister Manish Gupta said.
300 TRAINS STOP
The power outage in northern and eastern India created chaos on the tracks. Over three lakh passengers were stranded on Tuesday as about 300 trains could not move due to power failure. In all, six railway zones were affected. The railways has started using more diesel locomotives to clear rail traffic. Its officials said that it was able to restore normal operations in the northern region, as power was arranged from Dadri, Malwa and Phaphund.
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