Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde cancels official tour to attend to north power crisis

NEW DELHI: Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has cancelled his official tour to Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh to attend to the power crisis in northern states due to grid failure.

Shinde and power secretary P Uma Shankar were to attend a consultative committee meeting on NTPC on Monday in Tirupati. Shankar, however, has not come back to Delhi and will attend the Tirupati meet.

Shinde will brief media at 1100 hrs on the situation. Power supply across nine states of north India including Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan has been hit as the northern power transmission grid failed in the early hours of Monday.