KARACHI, July 6: The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation once again failed to supply uninterrupted power supply to thousands of its 1.7 million consumers on Saturday.
KESC consumers calling Dawn office on Saturday evening said that in most cases explanations of power breakdowns offered by regional complaint centres and ‘118’ differed a lot.
Rizwan Saeed, calling from North Karachi, Sector 11B, said he had called different newspapers the previous day to inform them about power failures in his locality. “Almost all newspapers carried reports of power cuts in my area. I thought that this would put a bit of pressure on the KESC and it would desist from ignoring this part of the city. In the event, I was woefully wrong because we suffered more power cuts on Saturday.”
Calling from an apartment in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 6, Naheed Ahmed told Dawn that her locality had faced the first power breakdown at 11.30pm the previous night. “The power supply was restored at five on Saturday morning. The next power breakdown occurred at 1.30pm which lasted till 3pm. Three hours later, at 6pm, the power supply once deserted us.”
She said that her local complaint centre had told her that the power shutdown had been because of tripping of a feeder. But the centralized complaint centre at 118 had told her that there was a cable fault in her area which would take at least three hours to be removed.
“It is surprising that two different KESC centres offer different explanations of breakdowns. A consumer should be excused for thinking that the KESC centres are playing fast and loose with the truth.”
A resident of Federal B Area, Block 19, said that when he had called his local complaint centre earlier in the day, a telephone attendant had told him that their power supply would be restored at around 3pm. “After some time when my neighbours called the same complaint centre the attendant told them that the power supply would be restored at around 5pm. It is interesting to learn that KESC officials also fib.”
A resident of Defence, Phase V, called Dawn office to say that his locality had been without electricity for the past one and a half hours. “When I call my complaint centre they keep telling me that electricity will be restored in half an hour.”
A caller from North Nazimabad, Block A, told Dawn that his locality had been without electricity for the past six hours. “When I tried to lodge my complaint with 118, they said there was no need to lodge a complaint because the power supply would be restored in a short while. A telephone attendant explained to me that in case of a cable fault a large number of KESC consumers were affected. As a result, 118 gets lots of complaints from the same area. He added that a cable fault took some time to be rectified.”
A resident of PECHS, Block 6, near Chanesar Halt, told Dawn that his locality had faced a power breakdown at around 11 the previous night. “The power supply was restored after almost one and a half hours, but it remained unstable.”
A resident calling from North Karachi, Sector 11-A, told Dawn that he had faced a power shutdown at around 1.30pm which had been restored at 3pm.
