Calcutta, July 24: The power situation in the city and the districts worsened today with the combined shortfall in the evening peak hours shooting up to 975MW.

A shortage of 225MW in the city caused power cuts for two to three hours.

The districts endured more with seven to eight hours of darkness.

Yesterday, the combined shortfall in the CESC and the State Electricity Distribution Company areas was 765MW.

State and private thermal power stations from West Bengal form the bulk of the 11 power plants that have received coal supplies much below the guaranteed level from Coal India Ltd (CIL) during the first half of this fiscal.