Title - Grid failure puts train services off-track

NEW DELHI: If Monday was bad, Tuesday turned out to be worse for Indian Railways trying to bring back its schedule on track. Train services in northern India suffered major disruption for the second consecutive day as three regional power grids failed at the same time.

With the Northern and Eastern Grids failing, movement of more than 300 trains was disrupted from 1.02pm in seven railway zones — especially 11 divisions — covering as many as 10 states, and the traffic could only be restored partially in different sections by the evening.

An estimated 3.5 lakh passengers were affected. Passengers from Delhi were the worst hit with even Rajdhanis and Durantos unable to leave the city stations on time.

Although power in different sections of Northern Railway was restored slowly from 2.45pm onwards, the congestion, especially on Delhi-Kota and Delhi-Kanpur routes, could be cleared only by 8pm as voltage remained low and the Dadri power plant and the Western Grid (from where railways was provided power on a priority basis) fell short of expectations.

"We were able to restore operations in Northern Railway from Delhi towards Kanpur, Kota and Itarsi by 2.15pm, and in East Coast Railway by 2.30pm," said SK Saxena, executive director (energy), Railway Board.

Saxena added that train services on the busy Delhi-Howrah route had been largely restored, barring the Mughal Sarai-Gaya section.

The worst affected zones in the wake of the power grid collapse were Northern Railway, North Central Railway, East Central Railway, East Coast Railway, parts of Eastern Railway, South Eastern Railway and West Central Railway.

Trains bound for Delhi, Amritsar, Jammu, Ferozepur, Kalka and many other places came to halt mid-way following power failure. A Northern Railway spokesperson said Ambala-Kalka and Kalka-Ambala passenger trains were cancelled. The Delhi-bound Amrapali Express and the Paschim Express towards Mumbai were run with diesel engines.

Among important trains, the Amritsar-bound Swarn Jayanti Express was stranded at Beas, the Howrah Duranto at Anand Vihar, the New Delhi-bound Sealdah Duranto at Tilak Bridge and the Delhi-bound Amritsar Express at Dhodha Khedi.

"Our train was to leave at 2.10pm from New Delhi. Here I am waiting with my family in the train at the platform and there's not a single railway officer to tell me when we can expect to start,'' said Santosh Singh, travelling on the Gomti Express.

Nirja Jain, on the Shiv Ganga Express, said, "We are being forced to wait inside the train. This might be the longest that I have spent at the originating station''.

As many as 105 trains on Eastern Railway and 75 on South Eastern Railway were left stranded in seven divisions after the eastern grid collapsed, completely stalling train services for about four hours. This will hit train movement directly on Wednesday in the Kanpur-Delhi section, said officers.