Power supply partially restored in Punjab, Haryana

Chandigarh, July 30 (IANS) Train services were partially resumed and power supply to some parts of Punjab and Haryana restored Monday after a complete power failure in the two states following a disruption in the entire Northern Grid, officials said here.

Power corporation officials in Punjab and Haryana said efforts were on to restore electricity supply to urban and rural areas.

Many trains, which got stranded at various stations and en-route, were being gradually move, a railway official of the Ambala division said. While some trains were attached with diesel engines and asked to proceed onward, power supply on the electrified routes was being restored to resume other train services, he said.

In Kurukshetra, the Kalka Howrah mail had been stranded since 2.30 a.m., when the Northern Grid failed.

Stranded passengers at Ambala, Kurukshetra, Rohtak, Karnal and other places in Haryana and Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar in Punjab could be seen taking buses and hiring taxis for their journey.

Power supply to industrial belts in Punjab and Haryana had not been restored till Monday morning, leaving thousands of workers without work on the first day of the week.

In Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, power supply had been restored to over 50 percent of the areas by 10 a.m., electricity department officials said.

The break down of the Northern Grid saw power supply being disrupted not just in Punjab and Haryana but also Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and parts of Uttar Pradesh.

--Indo-Asian News Service

js/mj/rd