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Powerless and clueless: 684 million Indians without power
Extracts:
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Calcutta was least affected.
It goes to show that Private ownership of Public Utilities ensure a better deal for the Nation and the consumer.
Extracts:
NEW DELHI: It was a Terrible Tuesday that 684 million Indians are not going to forget in a hurry. In the world's biggest blackout that affected one-tenth of the global population, 21 states and Union Territories went on the blink after three arterial power lines collapsed at 1 pm.
The northern, eastern and north-eastern regions suffered the outage when their respective grids collapsed in quick succession with devastating effect. The blackout disrupted normal life, rail and air services as well as industrial production across sectors.
Powerless and clueless: 684 million Indians without power - The Times of IndiaMore than 300 trains were affected. Many others are likely to be cancelled. Airports, hospitals and BPOs functioned with their back-up generators. In Delhi, once again commuters had a harrowing time, and a scary one for those who were stuck in the Metro Rail trains that stopped in their tracks several feet above the street or deep inside tunnels. Roads were gridlocked as traffic lights stopped working.
In Kolkata, the metro was not hit by the outage, but West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked all government offices to shut early and urged the private sector and schools to do the same to protect against commuter chaos in the evening. The Metro was not affected as the city largely remained isolated since power is supplied by a private firm.
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Calcutta was least affected.
It goes to show that Private ownership of Public Utilities ensure a better deal for the Nation and the consumer.