Kolkata in darkness after CESC power plants trips

The entire city plunged into the darkness today after the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) system crashed following a technical snag in an overhead power cable.

The entire city plunged into the darkness on Thursday after the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) system crashed following a technical snag in an overhead power cable.

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"At around 6:10 pm all units tripped simultaneously save for the 500 MW at the Budge Budge plant due to a technical problem in the overhead cable," CESC Executive Director Dilip Sen told PTI.

He said all units were in the process of restoration and it would take around two hours to normalise.

CESC's own normal generation capacity was about 1200 MW.

Underground metro services came to a halt, hospitals went off power by the sudden blackout.

Power also went off at the Calcutta Club where Governor M K Narayanan was participating in a hospital's programme.