Railway services across several States and the Delhi Metro were hit for the second consecutive day as power supply was hit due to grid failure.
Delhi Metro had to suspend all train services and stopped entry to all stations after the Northern grid collapsed. It had evacuated all trains (over 100 trains) and stations and declared the services closed. Thousands of passengers were stranded in underground tunnels for close to two hours.
Services on all lines remained suspended from 01:02 p.m. to 02:50 p.m. on Tuesday, the Delhi Metro said. Services were resumed on all lines at 2:50 p.m. with a frequency of 10 minutes. By evening, services were back to normal. Delhi Metro moves about 18 lakh people daily on an average.
RAILWAYS HIT
Services across six Railways zones were also thrown off gear. Over 300 passenger and 200 goods trains were impacted, Railway officials said. Northern Railway, North Central Railway, West Central, East Central, Eastern and South Eastern Railway were among the affected services.
Most of the busy routes and tracks with double lines are electrified, as about 32-33 per cent of the total route kilometres, and 45 per cent of track kilometres are electrified.
The primary objective of adopting electric traction was to achieve higher acceleration, which is essential for suburban rail systems.
With the electrification of Raj Kharswan-Dongaposi section of South Eastern Railway in 1960, which proved to be a big success, coal and mineral carrying high-density routes were also electrified.