Jan. 18: The districts experienced prolonged power cuts today following the collapse of two major units at the Kolaghat and Bandel thermal power stations and the shutdown of another at the National Thermal Power Corporation?s Farakka unit.

The combined shortfall in the State Electricity Board and the CESC-supplied areas shot up to around 600 mw.

?The Kolaghat and Bandel units are not expected to start generation before Thursday and the situation is likely to remain grim tomorrow,? said M.K. Roy, a member of the state power board.

In the evening, the shortfall shot up to 400 mw in the board?s areas leading to power cuts of up to four or five hours.

In Calcutta, the board restricted its supply to the CESC grid. In the evening peak hours, it gave 150 mw to CESC, about 200 less than usual. Calcutta suffered power cuts between an hour and two as the deficit rose to about 200 mw.

Power department sources said two 210-mw units ? one each at Kolaghat and Bandel ? collapsed following leaks in their boilers around 5.30 am. Almost at the same time, the Farakka authorities shut down a 200-mw unit because of coal shortage. The sudden absence of 620 mw from the grid threw supply out of gear and power cuts plagued the districts in the morning peak hours.

?The first thing I heard this morning was the bad news of the breakdowns. Our engineers are on the job and we hope to bring back the units by Thursday,? said S. Mahapatra, the managing director of Power Development Corporation Ltd, which controls the state-run plants.

However, officials said the boilers will take time to cool down before the engineers can touch them to carry out repair jobs. ?We have lighted up an 80-mw unit at Bandel,? said an official.