300 trains come to a halt due to power failure

Around 300 trains came to a grinding halt at various places on Tuesday afternoon due to failure of both the Northern and the Eastern grids covering close to 10 states, with movement on the busy Delhi-Howrah route almost paralysed.

According to the Railways, services in six railway zones such as the Northern Railway, North Central Railway, West Central Railway, East Central Railway, Eastern and South Eastern Railway have been badly hit.

As per initial reports, the affected trains include scores of long distance trains, Rajdhani and Shatabdi expresses, as well as suburban trains, causing inconvenience to passengers.

Train services also came to a halt in Asansol, Sealdah, and Howrah divisions in West Bengal after failure of the Eastern grid.

The disruption comes barely within 24 hours of the collapse of Northern Grid which led to large-scale disruption of long distance trains, forcing railways to reschedule timings.

"Services from the earlier power failure had barely been restored when the Railways have once again been hit by another power failure," a Railway spokesperson said.

However, he said Railways is arranging power from other available sources to run the stranded trains. He said they have started getting power from Haryana to restore services.

Divisional Railway Managers and other technical staff of the various rail divisions have rushed to the control room to aid train operations.