India restores power after blackout

India's power supply was fully restored after a two-day blackout hit much of the country, officials said yesterday.
More than 600 million people were affected by the power cut after three electricity grids collapsed, one for a second consecutive day.
The power failure caused havoc, with whole cities grinding to a halt and transport and other services badly hit.
The breakdowns in the northern, eastern and north-eastern grids affected 20 of India's 28 states.
Power System Operation Corporation chief SK Soonee said electricity had been restored in all three grids overnight on Tuesday by engineers from the state-owned company.
The blackout caused chaos on transport networks with hundreds of trains stranded and water supplies interrupted.
In Delhi, Metro services were halted and staff evacuated trains. Other areas affected included Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan in the north, and West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand in the east.
In a statement on national TV on Tuesday evening, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde blamed the crisis on states taking more than their quota of power from the national grid.
Power cuts are common in Indian cities because of a fundamental shortage of power and an ageing grid.
But the collapse of an entire grid is rare - the last time the northern grid failed was in 2001.