Title - Power cut hits industries, rail services in coastal AP

As the electricity employees went on strike in the coastal districts and the Rayalaseema area of Andhra Pradesh against the Union Government’s decision to bifurcate the State and form Telangana, power supply was disrupted on Monday and there was a blackout in most of the coastal towns and villages. All industries, commercial establishments and other institutions were badly hit.The Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, which experienced a minor disruption in production on Sunday, was totally disconnected from the State power grid on Monday and the plant was running solely on captive power units with a capacity of 240 MW. Sources said only the most essential systems were being maintained as otherwise there may be a total shutdown and production was badly hit.Other industries in Visakhapatnam and other towns had to stop production because of the power cut. Several trains on the Vijayawada-Chennai, Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada and the Visakhapatnam-Bhubaneswar sections were stopped because of the disruption in power supply. The railway authorities were moving trains on diesel engines. Passenger trains and goods trains were cancelled and several long-distance trains regulated due to the critical situation.

Curfew in force in Vizianagaram

The situation in Vizianagaram town, 60 km from here, where properties of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee President, B. Satyanarayana, were attacked, remained tense but under control, according to the police. Curfew continued in the town for the third day and there was a heavy deployment of rapid action police force.

Power generation at the Narla Tata Rao thermal power station at Ibrahimpatnam near Vijayawada came to a total halt on Sunday night. The plant generates 1750 MW of power.

sarma.rs@the.hindu.co.in