Freight movement comes to a halt in eight zones

On the second day of power grid failure, eight zones of the railways came to a standstill, hitting more than half its network. Compared to yesterday, the impact was more severe, as grid failures were reported in the northern, eastern and northeastern regions, bringing freight trains to a halt and leaving passengers of 300 trains stranded.

Diesel engines of freight trains are being used for hauling passenger trains on a priority basis. “The railways is also taking power from alternative grids,” said an official, adding, “The exact impact on cargo loading is not yet known, as freight trains do not have a schedule.”

Just as the railways was coming to terms with the loss from yesterday’s northern grid failure, on Tuesday’s collapse added to woes. Now, it would take 48-50 hours to return to normal scheduling, the official said.

Till evening, except for the Mughalsarai-Gaya section, there was patchy recovery in movement in other sections. However, the ripple effect of the traffic clogging in the Mughalsarai-Gaya section was making the recovery in adjacent sections slow. Since there is hardly any electrified route beyond the Howrah section, that section saw little impact.

Of the 16 zones, the north, north central, eastern, southeastern, east central and parts of west central and east coastal zones were hit.

“Railway Ministry officials are in talks with the grid managers of affected areas to arrange for power for stranded passenger trains on a priority basis. The railways is trying to resolve the crisis as soon as possible,” the official said.

The impacted area is a very important area from the perspective of freight movement. Mughalsarai- Gaya belt and South Eastern zone is important from the movement of coal and iron ore respectively. This break in supply won’t impact the working of thermal power as they maintain coal stocks.