KARACHI, July 7: Few consumers of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation were surprised when the transmission and distribution of the power utility failed to withstand the onslaught of rain on Monday.
Calling from North Nazimabad, Block A, Sohail said that on Monday his locality had been without electricity since 3pm. “On Sunday our power supply deserted us for 17 hours. They (KESC officials) should come to our locality to find out why such a prolonged power breakdown occurred on Sunday and Monday.”
Arshad Hussain called from Banglore Town and said that his locality had experienced a power breakdown as soon as the first drop of rain fell.
A resident of DHA, Phase 2 extension, called to say that his locality had experienced a power breakdown even before the start of rain. “In our locality rain started at 3.45pm, but our power supply was lost at around 2pm. I called the regional complaint centre. They said that they would not remove the fault in our locality as long as the rain continued.”
Shahid Saeed called from Defence, Phase IV, said that on Sunday his locality had been without electricity from 9 o’clock in the morning to one o’clock at night. “Does the KESC managing director or the chief engineer know there was such a prolonged power breakdown in our locality? It looks as if nobody in the KESC is bothered about erratic power supply in the city.”
A consumer called from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 4-A, to say that his locality had faced intermittent power breakdowns on Monday.
A resident of Federal B Area, Block 17, said that his locality had lost power supply at around 7pm with the first drop of rain.
Calling from North Nazimabad, Block D, a KESC consumer said that on Sunday his locality had been without electricity from 7am to 12.30pm. “On Monday we had three power breakdowns, the third one occurring after the rain,” he said.
A resident called from Defence, Phase IV, and said his locality had been without electricity for more than 12 hours on Sunday. He added that on Monday a power breakdown had occurred shortly after the rain.
A resident called from Azizabad No 2 near Al-Falah mosque and said his locality had been without electricity for the past 20 hours.
Calling from Defence, Phase IV, Wajih Siddiqui said his locality had faced a seven-hour-long power breakdown which had also resulted in a water shortage. He added that he had also called the complaint centre at the Governor’s House and had been told that his complaints had been passed on to the KESC.
A resident of North Nazimabad, Block I, said her locality had experienced a four-hour-long power breakdown on Monday.
KESC VERSION: Out of the total 850 power supply feeders, by 6pm 90 of them had tripped. By 10pm, 46 feeders had been restored.
According to a press release of the KESC, its managing director said this while addressing a press conference on Monday night.
He said: “Due to heavy traffic jam on the roads some areas could not be immediately reached by the fault correcting vehicles. Such complaints took some time in mending.”
He added that no incident of extra-high tension line tripping was reported and all the 52 grid stations functioned normally.
