Lucknow, July 31 (IANS) Life came to a standstill in Uttar Pradesh Tuesday as the Northen Grid tripped again around 1:30 p.m.,leading to a power blackout in most towns and cities and halting over 100 trains, stranding thousands of passengers.
Officials said power blinked in most towns and cities of the state and there was no likelihood of it being restored in the next six hours.
Railway officials told IANS that more than 100 trains were stuck on tracks and passengers have been stranded in places like Moradabad, Kanpur and Allahabad divisions. Several trains have come to a grinding halt in the Varanasi division and near Mughalsarai.
Officials said that control rooms are being set up to attend to passengers who will now face endless delays in arrivals and departures of trains.
At the Charbagh railway station at Lucknow chaos prevailed and hundreds of stranded passengers were looking for information while none was available.
Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) officials said that the Northern Grid collapse for the second time in the past 48 hours had come as a shock to them and that they were not in a position to say when would power be restored. Officials said that the snag happened in Agra around 1 p.m.
Power back-up has begun functioning at all city hospitals in the state capital and in VIP zones. Powermen said that while these were just temporary and stop gap arrangements, they were trying to fix the problem as soon as possible to ensure partial power restoration.
