Srilanka, Oct. 18 -- Power was restored in most parts of the island by 6 p.m. yesterday following a seven-hour islandwide blackout. Although the cause of the outage was not immediately known, Ports, Civil Aviation and Energy Minister Anura Karunathilaka said the Government intended to appoint a high-powered committee of experts to investigate the incident.

The inquiry would establish the precise cause of the blackout, identify any operational or technical shortcomings, and determine whether the outage could have been prevented, the Minister said.

He said all available resources had been mobilised to restore electricity following the unexpected outage, which raised concerns about the stability of the national electricity grid. Expressin...