The country that is being touted as the super power of the future saw a red letter day in its history when 300 million people of Northern India were afflicted by a power outage that lasted for more than 15 hours, scripting in golden letters the worst blackout of the decade. And I was a witness to the event when this saga was being scrolled!
The Northern Grid that collapsed supplies electricity to Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.
The bolt from the blue hit the water distribution system and Metro services with the operations at the Airport largely remaining unaffected due to the diesel generating back up system. A total of roughly 35,669 MW power had been affected due to the failure in the northern grid and the power for emergency services was restored on a priority basis by taking loans from western and eastern regions as well as Bhutan.
At 2 am a blinding black out gave way to what I thought could have been a usual summer siesta that the power usually took in the hot humid days of July.! The morning was a shocker with the radio jockey telling the city in a sadistic somberness that the northern grid had failed and much of the northern Indian sub-continent will have to live through the ordeal as a changeless choice. I wondered if this was the run to the aspirations of being a super power, where even a stray pet could plunge millions to darkness.
Some astonishing facts baring the truth about the powerless promises we are often handed out before an election as a pamphlet of ambitious manifestos.
