01 May 2004	Saturday	10 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, April 30: Electricity consumers on Friday complained that unannounced load shedding was being carried out by the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, which has insisted that no load shedding is being carried out.

Calling from various localities, the consumers said that complaints centres had told them that the power supply had been turned off because of a shortage of electricity. They added that the complaint centres had been very forthright in saying that the power utility was carrying out load shedding.

A resident of PECHS, Block 6, said that his locality had experienced the first power breakdown of the day at around 8am. "We were all getting ready to go to work and schools.

My children returned home in the afternoon, and found out that the power supply had been restored. The second power breakdown occurred at around 4pm which lasted exactly two hours.

I called the complaint centre of my locality from my workplace and tried to lodge a complaint. But the telephone attendant at the complaint centre said that the KESC was carrying out load shedding and power supply would be restored in two hours.

Shouldn't the KESC announce in advance that it will carry out load shedding?" he wondered. A resident of DHA, Phase II Ext, said that his locality had suffered a power breakdown a little before the Friday prayers.

"This is a commercial area, where most buildings have offices and small industries. A power breakdown brings to a halt all commercial and industrial activities in the locality.

The KESC should try to ensure uninterrupted power supply to all the commercial and industrial areas of the city," he observed. A resident of Korangi No 2, Sector 48-B, called Dawn around 9.30pm and said that his locality had been without electricity since 4pm. He added that the previous day, his locality had intermittent power breakdowns from 9am to the midnight.

Sources in the KESC centralized complaint centre told Dawn that power breakdowns had occurred in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Federal B Area, PECHS, Sindhi Muslim Housing Society, Korangi, Lyari, Malir and Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

Residents of Hussainabad, Siddiquabad and Azizabad, in Blocks 2 and 3 of Federal B Area, said that power went off at about 2.30pm and was restored after more than one hour. They also complained of intermittent interruption in the supply during the day and said similar situation prevailed on Thursday night.

They said that the officials at local complaint centre often regret that they could not ensure an uninterrupted power supply due to excessive load on the localities' transformers owing to illumination, in connection with the Eid Milad celebrations, all along the roads and streets.

The residents apprehended that the situation might aggravate when the celebrations would be at peak on Eid Milad night. A spokesman for the KESC said that a fault had occurred in what was known as KRL-Queens Road power line at around 12.20pm.

"The fault was removed exactly within an hour. Those areas which were fed by the KESC from that line, were obviously without electricity in the period," he explained. The spokesman said that a transformer in PECHS also developed a fault in the afternoon.

He added that the transformer was rectified at around 7pm. He made clear that if the KESC needed to carry out load shedding, it would announce it by releasing a press release.