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Subscribe to RSSTrains and subways ground to a halt as more than 600 million people in India faced a blackout after half the national power grid shut down. Experts say the outdated grid cannot keep up with the country's energy needs. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
Updated at 11:10 a.m. ET: NEW DELHI -- Half of India's 1.2 billion people were without power Tuesday as the grids covering 19 states broke down, the second major blackout in as many days.
Stretching from Assam, near China, to the Himalayas and the northwestern deserts of Rajasthan, the outage was the worst to hit India in more than a decade and embarrassed the government, which has failed to build up enough power capacity to meet soaring demand.
The power loss includes grid failures in northern, eastern and northeastern India.
A power outage in India has left more than 600 million people without electricity in one of the world's biggest-ever blackouts. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
"Even before we could figure out the reason for yesterday's failure, we had more grid failures today," said R. N. Nayak, chairman of the state-run Power Grid Corporation.
By the afternoon rush hour, only about 40 percent of power was back up. Electricity had not been restored to all of the sweltering capital, New Delhi, and streets were clogged with commuters trying to get home.
"It's certainly shameful. Power is a very basic amenity and situations like these should not occur," said Unnayan Amitabh, 19, an intern with HSBC bank in New Delhi, as he was giving up on the underground train system and flagging down an auto-rickshaw to get home.
"They (politicians) talk about big ticket reforms but can't get something as essential as power supply right," Amitabh said.
Temperatures in New Delhi have been about average for this time of year, hovering in the 90s with some rain. But the rains from the June-September monsoon season, which is the primary source of irrigation for most of India's farmlands, have been about 20 percent below average up to this point, according to The Economic Times, India's top financial paper.
Among the states hit hard are agricultural areas such as wheat-belt Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in the Ganges plains, which has a larger population than Brazil. With less rain to irrigate crops, more farmers resort to electric pumps to draw water from wells.
Rajesh Kumar Singh / AP
Heavy traffic clogged streets in central New Delhi, India, on Tuesday following power outages and rain.
Dozens die as blaze engulfs overnight train in India
Miners trapped
Two hundred miners were stranded in three deep coal shafts in the state of West Bengal when their electric elevators stopped working. Eastern Coalfields Limited official Niladri Roy said workers at the mines, one of which is 3,000 feet deep, were not in danger and were being taken out.
Train stations in Kolkata were swamped and traffic jammed the streets after government offices closed early in the dilapidated coastal city of 5 million people.
The power failed in some major city hospitals and office buildings had to fire up diesel generators.
By mid-evening, services had been restored on the New Delhi metro system.
"At one level it is not all that dramatic because most people do have backups because our power system is prone to breakdowns. What is dramatic today is that it has happened across the country," Himangshu Watts, the energy editor for The Economic Times told NBC News.
"In big cities like Delhi all the hospitals will have backup generation. ... What I'm concerned about (is) what would happen in ... surgery in a small town," he said.
PhotoBlog: India's new president takes office
Power cuts at major hospitals
Nineteen of India's 28 states with a total population of more than 600 million people suffered outages on Tuesday, India's NDTV said, with the lights out even at major hospitals in Kolkata.
Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde blamed the system collapse on some states drawing more than their share of electricity from the overstretched grid. Asia's third-largest economy suffers a peak-hour power deficit of about 10 percent, dragging on economic growth.
"This is the second day that something like this has happened. I've given instructions that whoever overdraws power will be punished," Shinde said.
A staffer at the Indian Ministry of Power told NBC News that Tuesday's outage, which occurred just after 2 p.m. (4:30 a.m. ET), was still being repaired.
Rajesh Kumar Singh / AP
Commuters wait for buses outside a subway station in New Delhi on Tuesday after the second major power outage in two days disrupted services in India's capital.
On Monday, India was forced to buy extra power from the tiny neighboring kingdom of Bhutan to help it recover from that blackout, which hit more than 300 million people.
Creaky infrastructure
Power shortages and a creaky road and rail network have also weighed heavily on the country's efforts to industrialize. Grappling with the slowest economic growth in nine years, India recently scaled back a target to pump $1 trillion into infrastructure over the next five years.
Full coverage of international news on NBCNews.com
Major industries have dedicated power plants or large diesel generators and are shielded from outages -- but the inconsistent supply hits investment and disrupts small businesses.
High consumption of heavily subsidized diesel by farmers and businesses has fueled a gaping fiscal deficit that the government has vowed to tackle to restore confidence in the economy. But the poor monsoon season means a subsidy cut is politically difficult.
NBC staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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These Indians breed like you know what. They definitely need some serious population control, there's too many of them already here in the USA.
You are wrong. Most Indians have only one or two children per couple. Many upper-middle class hindu couples have only one child out of choice. My husband and I could afford 10 kids---we only have ONE.
Not too long ago an ice storm in the northeast brought down power lines sending many communities into darkness. The problem it seems was with trees. Trees overburdened with ice failed an brought down the surrounding power lines. There was an outcry over how inefficient the power companies were at restoring power. You have a simple choice: You can have below ground utility service and above ground trees or you can have above ground utility service and below ground trees. I think you can figure this out. Its going to cost money to rebuild old infrastructure and we, the end users, are going to have to pay for it. No whining!!!
here we have a country where 90% of the people see nothing wrong with stoping and taking a crap in the middle of the road. they must spend all their free time screwing maybe thats all the pleasure they can get out of life but its killing them and it is not slowing down soon they wiil have the largest population in asia. they also expect the rest of the world to support them. its time to cut the balls off of 99% of them. This was actually attempted in the sixties.
I thought all those little dot's in the middle of their foreheads was a power supply.
Silly
I don't know what kind of government system over there but it is close to socialism if not worse. Screw Obamacare if this is where socialism leads . are you libs nuts or what ? I can handle paying for it without having to suffer first just as long as they don't make me pay for it. I really do not believe there are 1.2 billion people there. It seems this has been the number for years it never changes. they lie !
"...I don't know what kind of government system over there but it is close to socialism if not worse..."
How do you know it's close to socialism if you don't know what kind of government they have?
Less people+more power grid modernization=no events like this one.
This isn't just the domain of a crumbling place like India. it can happen here, or anywhere.
Note to self: Cancel upcoming trip to New Delhi.
Yes, at least they had the foresight to put those headlights between their eyes.
Sarcasm dinkie come on now ! The question is why do they always have 1.2 billion people does it ever change ? Fool ! India is screwed up do they even have a system cock eye ? No really I like your humor it is just like a lib to ask a question with another dumb question ehh ! can I ask you what kind os system do they have or does it take a mandate to answer the question ?
Our system is outdated and with more an more people coming into our world, more demands from our own countries infrastructure will be needed. We need to make repairs and replace the old with the new or I believe our country has a chance to be in the same type of situation. If our politicians would learn to work together to get a job done and stop crying and complaining what the other side has done or not done might be a step forward. How about, worrying about the well being of our country for a change and put away these silly differences. I do not think it would happen anytime soon but we could be facing the same type of situation. Both parties of our government should work together to get a job done.
Republicans are trying to force the country into bankruptcy so they can kill all social programs like Social Security and Medicare.
They started two unfunded wars and an unfunded Medicare prescription plan and borrowed the money instead of having an income tax surcharge like we always did in the past in order to pay as we go.
Republians are trying to borrow the country into bankruptcy.
Republicans = the party of BORROW AND SPEND and leave the bills to the grand kids.
Both parties work together for the good of the country??? What kind of a radical idea is that? Sounds like something that that old geezer, Ben Franklin would say "We must all hang together or we shall assuredly hang separately". Maybe a few of them should be hung....
WychDoctor George LOL
How's that Indian tech support working for you today :)
This shows what happens when there is no regulation of business.
.......................Sanjay.......What does this button do?
Why don't you just say what you mean . People are dieing because of lack of health care or going broke. Funny that you think it is lack of insurance that causes this. Ask God ! ehh . Socialism sucks and it will suck here too. They let government do it and look at the result .
"This is Microsoft Tech Support, your call will be answered in the order it was recieved. Approximate wait is three hundred days, ten hours. Your call is very improtant to us, please continue to hold"
Ain't that outsourcing great?
I wonder how this is effecting all the outsourced services there.
Also, this could happen here in the US too. Our power grid infrastructure is aging to say the least.
it is global warming. one more time, it is global warming. way too many babies born, thanks to islam and catholicism, nutty religions doing nutty things, way too many people all consuming humongous amounts of cheap chinese products, the countries going bankrupt across europe. yes, the world is coming to an end.
a huge game of where's waldo, lol
i don't care if the world spins into the sun virginiadem...but if they kill my dog, i am be pissed...loved yur comments.
Don't ask me how I know this either , as it heats up people will use more power to cool down and then what ehh ! Pay or be fines as a solution. Nahh. It takes incentive to save the world cashola and money from people that believe in you. Government is out dated. Liberals never agree to anything. They will all sit in the dark waiting while they LIE ! How many Hindu's does it take to screw a light bulb ?
Sadly enough, India remains a 3rd world country. Six Hundred Million people without power and the other 600 million have never had power.
This is very very bad.
very very bad
this is just another reason why we need a jobs bill passed that is for infrastucture, we will be in the same boat if we do not upgrade with times, has nothing to do with this adm. or the last 20 it has to do with congress and who will get the credit for the bill,mean while we will suffer, with colapseing roads and bridges and power shortages, poor water, and waste removal. congress should pass a bill and put americans back to work.
You know, back in the 1930's, there was just such a thing - a couple of programs, called the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). They both produced great improvements in our country, dams, roads, parks - and trained workers. Could it be done today? Only if you have people who want to work to improve their condition, rather than sit back and wait for the all caring, all doing gubmint to drop a check in their hand and food in their mouth.
How do you tell between a conservative and a liberal? The conservative signs his check on the front, and a liberal signs his on the back.
The Asians are a totally selfish people in regards to the way they have exploded their nation's populations without any concerns whatsoever to the fact that it has and continues to place a huge strain on the worlds natural resources, even more so than ever as they continue to grow and expand economically. There are 1.6 billion people in a country half the size of the United States, (India), and even worse yet you have China exceeding that number! One out of every three people on this planet lives in those two nations alone. Stop breeding like rats, you are sucking the earth dry of it's non-renewable resources and at the same time causing the rest of the worlds population to suffer because of the never ending rising costs of living due to short supply and over demand because of your incessant animalistic breeding practices.
sorry I just assumed you knew sooo here it is good luck with it ehh never be mean to confused libs they never have fun. !//Socialism in India has a long tradition, emerging from the struggle against imperialism and represents a significant part of the country's historical political
This should be a lesson learned for us here in the US, if you don't create and maintain a systems infrastructure, this is what happens.
Lesson learned? We can't privatize and deregulate fast enough. The told us how great electric deregulation was going to be in Texas. They were wrong. Our prices went up, and now the largest provider says they need much higher prices as incentive to build generating plants.
Like someone else said, the shareholders come first.