Automated creation of perpendicular lines between a point layer and a line layer

Next script automated creation of perpendicular lines between a point layer and a line layer. The perpendicular segments (features of a memory layer) created run from the points to the nearest feature of line layer.

mapcanvas = iface.mapCanvas()

layers = mapcanvas.layers()

p_lyr = layers[0]
l_lyr = layers[1]

epsg = p_lyr.crs().postgisSrid()

uri = "LineString?crs=epsg:" + str(epsg) + "&field=id:integer""&field=distance:double(20,2)&index=yes"

dist = QgsVectorLayer(uri, 
                      'dist', 
                      'memory')

QgsMapLayerRegistry.instance().addMapLayer(dist)

prov = dist.dataProvider()

lines_features = [ line_feature for line_feature in l_lyr.getFeatures() ] 
points_features = [ point_feature for point_feature in p_lyr.getFeatures() ]

feats = []

for p in points_features:

    minDistPoint = min([l.geometry().closestSegmentWithContext( p.geometry().asPoint() ) for l in lines_features])[1]
    feat = QgsFeature()
    feat.setGeometry(QgsGeometry.fromPolyline([p.geometry().asPoint(), minDistPoint]))
    feat.setAttributes([points_features.index(p),feat.geometry().length()])
    feats.append(feat)

prov.addFeatures(feats)

I tried it out with a situation very similar to presented in the question:

After running the code at the Python Console of QGIS it was obtained:

Here is the same code as in accepted answer only adjusted to work with Python 3.x (or QGIS v3.x):

from qgis.core import QgsProject

mapcanvas = iface.mapCanvas()

layers = mapcanvas.layers()

p_lyr = layers[0]
l_lyr = layers[1]

epsg = p_lyr.crs().postgisSrid()

uri = "LineString?crs=epsg:" + str(epsg) + "&field=id:integer""&field=distance:double(20,2)&index=yes"

dist = QgsVectorLayer(uri,
                      'dist',
                      'memory')

QgsProject.instance().addMapLayer(dist)

prov = dist.dataProvider()

lines_features = [ line_feature for line_feature in l_lyr.getFeatures() ]
points_features = [ point_feature for point_feature in p_lyr.getFeatures() ]

feats = []

for p in points_features:

    minDistPoint = min([l.geometry().closestSegmentWithContext( p.geometry().asPoint() ) for l in lines_features])[1]
    feat = QgsFeature()
    feat.setGeometry(QgsGeometry.fromPolylineXY([p.geometry().asPoint(), minDistPoint]))
    feat.setAttributes([points_features.index(p),feat.geometry().length()])
    feats.append(feat)

prov.addFeatures(feats)