Darkness prevailed for over an hour and a half in entire Bihar on Saturday night as the Super Grid of the Bihar State Electricity Board, situated at Biharshariff in Nalanda district suddenly collapsed because of 'loose jumpering', snapping transmission and distribution of power.

Member Transmission and Distribution, BSEB, Monoharlal told PTI that the supply to the main townships was restored after the Board engineers detected the fault and repaired it.

Around 140 MW was being transmitted through the Super Grid to different places, while efforts were still in progress to restore supply to Samastipur and Barauni.

Industrial work was severely hit due to the power failure, official sources said. The exact amount of loss incurred by industrial units was being tabulated.

Television viewers were upset due to the sudden power failure in the midst of the swearing in ceremony of the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre.