The massive failure came less than 24 hours after theNorthern Grid collapsed and was revived yesterday.
After 10 hours, 86 per cent supplies have resumed in theNorthern region while in the Eastern region 79 per cent have been restored till2330 hours, according to Power Grid.
Today, the worst sufferers were 265 miners who got trappedin coal mines in West Bengal and Jharkhand due to power outage. They wereevacuated after hours of agony.
In the national capital, thousands of Metro commuters had aharrowing time when the trains stopped inside the tunnels as transmission linestripped at 1300 hours.
Railway services too were hit, with 300 trains gettingdisrupted in seven zones in 10 states.
In the national capital, the power collapse triggereddisruption in Metro and train services, crippled water supply and choked roadsdue to non-functional traffic lights.
For the first time, the three inter-state transmissionnetworks -- Northern Grid, Eastern Grid and North-Eastern Grid -- trippedtogether. While no official reason was given for the failure, sources said thetrouble started in the eastern grid.
By 2030 hours, the supplies in the North-Eastern region andDelhi had been fully restored.
The grid failure and the chaos followed on a day when, in aCabinet reshuffle, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde was moved to the HomeMinistry and Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily was given the additionalcharge of power.
The states affected included Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar,Jharkhand, Odisha, Sikkim and Assam.
Besides 21 states, Union Territory of Chandigarh was alsoaffected.
