The Northern Grid, which collapsed on Monday and was restored after 15 hours, again tripped on Tuesday. The Eastern and North-Eastern transmission lines too failed this afternoon, worsening the power situation in the country 

New Delhi: India faced a major power crisis for the second consecutive day on Tuesday as three grids serving Northern, Eastern and North-Eastern regions failed this afternoon, leading to 200 coal miners getting trapped in eastern state of West Bengal and throwing normal life out of gear in 22 states, reports PTI.

As the grids collapsed around 1pm, miners in Eastern Coalfields got trapped in Sodepur and Satgram in Burdwan districts of West Bengal, according to officials who said rescue efforts are on.

In Delhi, Metro commuters were trapped inside the tunnels for sometime as trains came to a halt as electricity supplies got snapped.

The Centre blamed overdrawal by states in the Eastern region for Tuesday's grid collapse. Power Grid Corp promised normalcy would be restored by 7pm.

The states affected included Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Odisha, Bihar, Rajasthan and Assam and Union Territory of Chandigarh, covering more than half of the population.

In Kolkata, Metro Rail services were unaffected, according to state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The state government declared holiday in its offices after 3 PM.

The Railways network across major parts of the country was among the worst hit services, as trains, other than those running on diesel engine, stopped midway.

Assam witnessed large-scale power cuts throughout the state. In Orissa also, train services were hit.

The Northern Grid, which collapsed on Monday and was restored after 15 hours, again tripped on Tuesday. The Eastern and North-Eastern transmission lines too failed this afternoon, worsening the power situation in the country when it is facing drought-like situation in most parts.

"Some sections are creating problems by overdrawing power," Power Grid CMD RN Nayak said.

This is probably the first time that three grids have collapsed simultaneously.

When asked about the reasons for the failure of grids, Shinde said some states are drawing electricity over and above their limits. "This was creating problems," the minister said.

"This morning only, I was told (by officials) that about 3,000 MW extra power has been over drawn from the Eastern Grid. We have given the direction to either stop it (over drawal) or take action against them," he added.

"Grid incident occurred at 13:00 hours affecting the Northern Grid, Eastern Grid and North Eastern Grid," National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC) said. The authorities began to restore power for essential services on a priority basis at around 1500 hours in the National Capital and other states.

India has five electricity grids -- Northern, Eastern, North Eastern, Southern and Western. All of them are inter- connected, except the Southern grid.

All the grids are being run by the state-owned Power Grid Corporation, which operates more than 95,000 circuit km of transmission lines.

One circuit km refers to one kilometre of electrical transmission line.

The authorities began restoring power to essential services at around 1500 hours, pursuant to which many services including Delhi Metro resumed operations. Services at airports and hospitals remained largely unaffected due to backup electricity available with them.

Nearly 300 trains came to a grinding halt at various places due to the grids' failure, including on the busy Delhi-Howrah route. The Metro services in Kolkata were also affected, while the West Bengal government asked the employees to leave early for home in the wake of power crisis.