India suffers massive power outage

 India failed for the fiMore than 300 million people were left without electricity early Monday when the power grid across northern rst time in a decade—a development said to have highlighted the country's inability to meet its people's growing energy needs.

The power grid collapse on Monday was the country's worst blackout in a decade and affected seven states in northern India, home to more than 350 million people. But Tuesday's failure appeared to be even larger, hitting eastern and northeastern areas, as well. Both blackouts hit the capital, New Delhi.

The companies that operate the northern and eastern electricity grids reported the collapse Tuesday on their websites. And at least 300 trains have been held up in the affected regions, said Anil Kumar Saxena, a spokesman for Indian Railways.

The grid companies said they were working to restore the power supply.

The grid failure on Monday struck in the early hours of the morning. Residents spent the rest of the night drenched in sweat amid humid weather, and many backup power systems had run out by daybreak. Power was partially restored after about six hours, the authorities said.

That blackout left passengers stranded at train stations, and signal failures caused traffic snarls that choked the Indian capital's already congested roads during office hours.

The Indian power minister, Sushilkumar Shinde, has already ordered an investigation into Monday's outage. He said the last time that an entire grid failed in north India was 10 years ago.