KARACHI: People brave another day of power failures
By Arman Sabir
KARACHI, May 26: People continued to suffer from power breakdowns on Thursday, as the transmission and distribution system of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation developed faults in various city areas. People complained that power failures had become a regular feature while the KESC officials did not respond positively whenever complaint centres were contacted.
They also complained that power failures during nights amid the humid weather did not allow them to sleep, adding that ailing people suffered the most. Since the start of summer, power outages had become a daily routine in Kalyana Town, North Karachi, usually in the morning from 9am to 10am, and after midnight from 1am to 2am. Sometimes, power failures last from three to four hours, a consumer said.
Another consumer from Federal B Area said load-shedding for one hour in the evening was a regular feature.
It had increased in the past days with the KESC not forgetting even a single day to carry out load-shedding.
A frustrated consumer from Defence Phase V Extension said power failures of five to six hours occurred daily, generally from 9pm to 2am. Another citizen said that between Wednesday and Thursday night power went out two times, once from 12 midnight to 1.30am and then from 2am to 2.30am in blocks 17 and 18, Gulistan-i-Jauhar.
Major load-shedding was also reported in Gulshan-i-Iqbal. An irate consumer living in block 13/D/111 said about two morning load-shedding sessions of one hear each, a long spell of power failure in the afternoon and a similar one in the evening were a daily routine.
A citizen from Federal B Area, Block 17 said power supply was terminated in his area at about 1.30am and restored some one hour later. Another consumer living in Al-Erum Estate Foundation in Buffer Zone, Sector 15-A/5 said power failure for the whole night was a routine feature. Area people had to pass sleepless nights in the hot and humid weather.
Several people called KESC complaint centres but all in vain. Many people from Defence phases IV, V, and VI complained that electricity was switched off in the afternoon during the blistering day. It was restored after two hours.
A resident of Nazimabad Block-4 said that an hour of loadshedding every night had become a routine in the area, but the KESC want not content with that and switched off power supply for five hours during the day on Thursday.
“We thought today the KESC people would not switch off power supply at night but the supply went off at around 11pm, and when will it return is not yet known,” he added.
People from Kausar Town, Pak Kausar Town, Indus Mehran and Khokhrapar No 1 said power supply in these area went off at least four times during the day, beginning early in the morning. “Every time it remained off from half an hour to three hours,” a resident from Kausar Town told Dawn late in the night.
