KARACHI: KESC fails to ensure uninterrupted supply
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 11: Despite a marked drop in temperature from Thursday’s 39.6 degrees Centigrade to 32.7 degrees Centigrade on Friday, the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation failed to ensure uninterrupted power supply to a large number of consumers.
Calling from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 13-D-1, Asad Ali told Dawn that when KESC equipment in his locality were not affected by hot weather, they developed such faults that a large number of KESC staff failed to rectify them for a long time.
“A couple of days back, we had a protracted power failure. When we contacted our regional complaint centre, we were told that there was a cable fault in our locality which took a long time to be first detected and then rectified. We were asked to exercise patience and self-control. Today, we lost our power supply once again. Telephone attendants at the regional complaint centre said that the power breakdown was due to overloading on the part of consumers. Why is it that the KESC is never at fault and consumers are always blamed for power breakdowns?”
A KESC consumer from Federal B Area, Block 18, also had a sorrowful story to relate. She said: “Last night we stayed awake because of a prolonged power breakdown. The row of houses next to ours had electricity. Children playing outside their houses spotted a KESC vehicle in the vicinity of our locality. Some young men requested the KESC staff to attend to our complaint as well. The power utility officials refused to do that, saying that they rectify only those faults which they were ordered to do. It was red tape which prevented the KESC staff from rectifying our fault.”
Sources working at the centralized complaint centres of the KESC, better known as 118, told Dawn that they had received power complaints from Shah Faisal Colony, Gulshan-i- Iqbal, North Nazimabad, Lea Market, New Karachi and Surjani Town. They said they had a hard time explaining to irate KESC consumers why power breakdowns were occurring when summer had just started.
“Quite often we are told to inform consumers when a fault would be rectified. When the fault is not rectified in that interval, people call us again and misbehave, acting as if we are responsible for the power breakdowns,” they said.
Another consumer calling from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 13-D-1, said it was beyond him why the KESC made special arrangements for the house owned by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali in the same area.
An irate KESC consumer calling from North Karachi suggested people should follow the example of KESC consumers in Landhi who had taken the matters into their own hands when they had damaged the regional complaint centre and taught irresponsible engineers a lesson. He added that KESC consumers had no option but to turn violent.
GAS SUPPLY: The Sui Southern Gas Company has increased gas supply to the KESC power plants in Karachi and at Bin Qasim to 240 MMCFD which is more than the committed gas offtakes of 236 MMCFD, to these power plant, says a press release.
It adds that these improved supply levels will reduce fuel cost to the KESC and improve efficiency of their units and will also improve reliability of power supply to consumers at Karachi.
