Ludhiana, May 24 -- A major portion of Ludhiana Junction railway station remained without electricity for nearly 18 hours after an excavation machine engaged in the station redevelopment project allegedly snapped underground power cables during late-night work.

The outage began around 1 am on Saturday in several sections of the railway station, including the Railway Protection Force (RPF) office, Government Railway Police (GRP) office, parcel office and the running room used by loco pilots between shifts.

Power supply had not been restored till the filing of this report at 7 pm.

Railway authorities said restoration work was underway, though train operations remained unaffected.

"There has been no electricity since last night and it ha...