Half of India Without Power as Electricity Grids Collapse Again - East Idaho News
World

Half of India Without Power as Electricity Grids Collapse Again

  Published at

GETTY W 112111 IndiaPakistanBorderMap?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1343732435876iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Millions of people in India are in the dark again Tuesday after a massive power outage struck the country for a second consecutive day.

Electricity grids in northern and eastern India collapsed Tuesday afternoon, knocking out electricity to about half of the country — about 600 million people — and crippling transportation.  In New Delhi, traffic lights are out and the city’s metro rail system is shut down.

Aside from the capital, other affected areas include the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan in the north, and West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand in the east, the BBC reports.

The latest blackout comes one day after the northern grid failed, leaving some 300 million people without power for several hours.  That power outage also led to a commuting nightmare early Monday morning.

Power officials in the country say it’s not unusual during the summer months for states to “take more power” from the grid than authorized, and suspect that may have contributed to Monday’s failure, according to the BBC.

A task force has been appointed to determine the exact cause of the outage.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

SUBMIT A CORRECTION