21 October 2004	Thursday	06 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Oct 20: Power cuts continued to occur on Wednesday as the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation blamed the erratic national grid for electricity breakdowns especially during the peak hours.

A KESC spokesman said that since there was power shortage of about 500 megawatts in Karachi, the KESC was dependent on Wapda for constant supply of required power to the city as committed by them to the local utility at various high level meetings of the federal government.

The spokesman told Dawn on Wednesday that the federal government had been approached by the KESC for ensuring the required and committed 500-megawatt supply from the national grid for providing uninterrupted power supply to the city.

Calling from Nazimabad, Block 4, a resident said his regional complaint centre told him that illuminations at various places of worship were also responsible for a greater demand for electricity supply.

Calling from Defence, Phase II extension, Mohammad Nawaz said that for the past 15 days at least 10 brief breakdowns had been occurring between the sunset and 4am.

"While the power breakdowns are brief, they are extremely irritating because they occur for more than 15 times. Besides, brief power breakdowns are very bad for home appliances like TV and computers. Ironically, the managing director of the KESC appeared on a TV channel before the advent of Ramazan and promised that the power utility would do its utmost to help its consumers during the holy month," he said.

Sources in the centralized complaint centre told Dawn that the number of complaints on Wednesday was more than 2,000.