Title - Jharkhand districts grapple with massive power outage

BOKARO: The failure of eastern power grid on Tuesday affected movement of trains with over a dozen passenger trains stranded at various locations in the Chakradharpur railway division of the South Eastern Railway. Over six passenger trains were stranded at the Tatanagar railway station for over three hours, said railway officials. Affected trains include Tatanagar-Asansol Intercity, Subernarekha Express, Tatanagar-Jammutwai, Tatanagar-Jasidih Sravani Express, Tatanagar-Barkakhana Ispat Express and Jan Shatabdi Express, among others. Several goods trains were also stranded at various locations."Power supply was partially restored around 3.30pm and, thereafter, movement of trains resumed in the Tatanagar section," said deputy station manager, Tatanagar Rajendra Prasad. "Power supply was restored in the late evening hours," said senior divisional commercial manager, Chakradharpur division, A K Haldar.The Adityapur industrial area, a hub of small industries, also suffered production loss amounting in crores. "As per our estimates, we have incurred a production loss of over Rs 25 crore owing to the power failure," said Adityapur small industries association functionary Santosh Khetan. Healthcare services at primary health centers in Seraikela-Kharswan, West Singhbhum and East Singhbhum districts were affected for large parts of the day due to power failure.

Jharkhand State Electricity Board officials of Jamshedpur circle said power supply in Gamharia grid would get normalized by late evening. "Gradual restoration of the power supply is on. The Gamhria grid received only 20% of its capacity (300MW) till 5pm and we think complete restoration could take some time," said JSEB Jamshedpur circle general manager O P Ambasta. He, however, said it is too early to figure out the apparent revenue loss to the JSEB owing to the grid failure.

Meanwhile, in Hazaribag, the grid in the DVC thermal power plants, which was almost normal till around 2pm, suddenly tripped due to total failure of the eastern grid of the National Power Grid Corporation, said top officials of DVC's Central Load Despatch Centre at Maithon, from where the power is distributed and dispatched to various grids. Sanjay Kumar Singh, general secretary of the central committee of the DVC officers forum, said all power-generating units of the DVC's thermal plants in Bokaro, Chandrapura, and hydel power stations at Maithon and Panchet had stopped. Engineers at Central Load Despatch (CLD) at Maithon said they are controlling power distribution of the DVC power stations said, "We are aware of the fault in the eastern grid and are trying to normalize the situation at the earliest." He said that some units at DVC's Chandrapura thermal station have been partially restored after the DVC engineers started synchronizing the power generating units.

He said till now Chandrapura TPS, whose production fell to zero, has now started generating 90MW, while the Panchet hydel unit is generating 32MW and the Maithon hydel power unit have started generating 14MW of power. With this the DVC has started generating 135MW of power against average of 2500 MW per day.

In Dhanbad coal production and dispatch was badly affected due to the power shut down in coal belt region. According to official sources, at least 40 per cent of the targeted one lakh tonne daily production was affected as the second shift did not operate in the underground mines of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) and Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) in the district.

Five coal miners who were trapped in Jairampur colliery of Lodhan project of BCCL as power went off suddenly were later rescued. A total 70 mines of BCCL alone could not operate due to the power breakdown.

Additional DRM (Dhanbad division) Rajesh Mohan said the Kalka Mail and Doon Express had to be cancelled. The Sialdah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express and Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express were operated by diesel engines. .

"Around 33 goods trains transporting iron ore and coal were also stranded at different stations," said Mohan.

In Bokaro production in two power units of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and state-run-Tenughat Thermal Power Station (TTPS) came to a halt following power grid failure at 1.05pm on Tuesday. The power shortage caused blackout in most parts of the district except Bokaro township, as the Bokaro Power Supply Company Limited (BPSCL) which supplies power to it remained unaffected. However, the power crisis has badly affected production in Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL), Central Coalfield Limited (CCL) and Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) mines beside it also disrupted movement of trains.

BSL chief of communications Sanjay Tiwari said the power shortage had throttled production in plant. "The power supplied by BPSCL is helping to keep equipment in ready condition," he said.