Left in darkness, there were massive traffic snarls along the entire corridor. More than 70 traffic marshals deployed on the route were unable to handle the traffic, causing panic among DIMTS officials deployed at the corridor for the trial run.

Sources said power failure had occurred on the route earlier, too, and Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System (DIMTS), responsible for the corridor, has already been told about the need to install generators, inverters or arrange for alternative source of power.

“But no arrangement has been made yet for arranging power backup,” the source said.

DIMTS managing director S N Sahay refused to comment on the issue.

Sources, meanwhile, said the blackout was triggered by a technical fault in the local power distribution network. The average waiting time for cars at Chirag Dilli intersection was 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s son and East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit visited the corridor on Saturday morning and made his displeasure known to the officials. Getting to the corridor in a plain car, it took him over 45 minutes to cover the 5.8-km stretch, sources said.