Frequency of Electrical Supply

It's got something to do with the long-running relationship between India and the UK, where the frequency is also 50Hz. It is generally only in the Americas (both north island and south island) where the frequency is different.

Dear PWSlack,

I agree with you. I think so its long relationship between UK and India.

If we observe our society system like Railway department, Police department, etc. we have just followed UK system only.

It purely up to my knowledge if any misleading is there please replay me so that I can think and change the opinion I think

You can read about the different systems used around the world, and some of the history behind them, here.

Japan is an interesting case. As far as I know, it's the only country to use both 50Hz and 60Hz systems (in different regions). The shinkansen (bullet train) has to stop when going from one region to the other, to do some kind of switchover.

Oh, yes. Some parts of the Swiss railway network have been using 16²/₃Hz in the past.

In the early days of electricity in SA (also a former British colony) towns provided their own power and imported from where they saw fit. We therefore had a mixture of systems including 50Hz and 60Hz. and even DC.

In 1950 - 60 in a standardization process the 50Hz of the majority were chosen.

I think India more or less went the same way.

In India electrical generation and distribution was developed before Independence and naturally the British companies followed initially DC system and later 440/230 50 Hz Ac system as followed in UK and Europe as all the electrical equipments were designed to suit that system. After Independence also the same system continued as it was not possible to replace all the equipments to suit to any other system. you can get elaborate details regarding frequency from the following link . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_frequency#History

And, to make life interesting, we here in the North Island colonies (thanks, PW) use some 25Hz power (see NorthEast Corridor for example). And then there's Switzerland which had some 40 Hz that they modernized to 16.67 Hz some years back?