Another power cut at Terminal 3

The problem of power failure came back to haunt the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) once again on Tuesday.

The problem of power failure came back to haunt the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) once again on Tuesday. Though the power interruption remained for a short duration, it was enough to send airlines and security officials at the airport into a tizzy.

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The power cut began at 10.56am on Tuesday and it took more than 20 minutes for normal power supply to resume.

Private airport operator Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL) said the power supply was deliberately shutdown to check the electrical system of the airport, in the wake of the four-hour-long power failure on August 7, 2011.

On Sunday, the airport’s Terminal 3 plunged into complete darkness at 1.25am, delaying nearly 80 flights by five to six hours and affecting 2,500 passengers.

While the power transformer feeding the terminal tripped leading to interruption in power supply on Sunday, a spark in the back-up diesel generator (DG) sets meant there was no power supply at the terminal for four hours. DIAL has set up a technical committee to investigate what it called a “rare occurrence”.

“At 10.56am, the technical committee undertook the sensitive re-verification of the electrical system operation to check the integrity of the equipment,” a DIAL spokesman said.

“The testing was completed successfully within seven minutes. The exercise was carried out when the flight operations were minimal,” he said.

“There was not much problem at the airport as we have very few flights operating at that time but it definitely took us by surprise,” the senior official of a domestic carrier.

“DIAL should have informed us in advance.” “We thought there is a reoccurrence of Sunday’s incident and prepared to resume a drill,” said a senior CISF official.