360 Million Indians Hit By ‘Worst Blackout In Decade’
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Nearly 360 million residents in North India woke up to no electricity early Monday morning, reported Bloomberg News, after a massive grid failure in the capital of Delhi had cut off all power supplies, shutting down numerous transport networks in the process.
Nearly 360 million residents in North India woke up to no electricity early Monday morning, reported Bloomberg News, after a massive grid failure in the capital of Delhi had cut off all power supplies, shutting down numerous transport networks in the process.
The blackout, which had begun around 2am, was believed to have originated due to a fault at a power station in the city of Agra – with nine Indian states affected including: Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Chandigarh.
By late morning, 60 percent of the power had been restored, said V.V. Sharma, a general manager with the systems operation unit of Power Grid Corp (PWGR) of India, though he refused to speculate on what exactly led to grid failure.
“We’ll find out the reason and see that such kind of things are avoided in the future,” said Ram Nayak, the head of the state-run PWGR, to Reuters.
[quote]”The biggest priority (right now) is to connect essential loads back to public transport systems, whether it be the rail or the airport, hospitals and other places,” he added.[/quote]Across the affected states, many businesses turned to back-up generators for their energy needs, while services on New Delhi’s metro and Indian railways were suspended for several hours. Traffic signals too had failed as a result of the blackout, causing massive confusion and commuter chaos on public roads.
“I’m 45 minutes late for work. First, no power since 2 in the morning, then no water to take a shower and now the metro is delayed by 13 minutes after being stuck in traffic for half an hour,” told 32-year-old Keshav Shah, who works in a multinational software company 30 km outside the capital, to Reuters.
[quote]”As if I wasn’t dreading Monday enough, this had to happen.”[/quote]While power blackouts are frequent in much of the country, this failure was the first time since 2001 that the entire northern grid had collapsed.
According to Bloomberg, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is seeking to secure $400 billion of investment in the power sector in the next five years in order to boost an additional 76,000 megawatts in generation by 2017. Sceptics however note that India has missed every annual target to add electricity production capacity since 1951.
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“This again highlights how poor infrastructure remains the biggest drag on the Indian economy,” said D.H. Pai Panandiker, president of RPG Foundation, an economic policy group based in New Delhi.
[quote]“The power sector remains too over-regulated. Unless private companies are allowed greater involvement, the problems are going to remain,” he said.[/quote]
