KARACHI: Power cuts prolong as heatwave intensifies
By Bahzad Alam Khan
KARACHI, June 21: The ill-maintained transmission and distribution network of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation broke down in many locations of the city as the ongoing heatwave intensified on Tuesday. Sources in the centralized complaint centre said that while the KESC infrastructure was already doing badly, unexpected afternoon showers struck a bitter blow to the transmission and distribution system.
They told Dawn that the locations which experienced prolonged and multiple power cuts on Tuesday included Dhoraji, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Buffer Zone, New Karachi, Defence, Kharadar, Federal B Area, North Nazimabad, Lyari, Sharafabad, Clifton Gulistan-i-Jauhar, and Korangi.
They said the number of complaints registered by them had registered a sharp rise over the past three days.
A resident of North Nazimabad, Block D, said: “A portion of our locality has been without electricity for the past eight hours. You can imagine our frustration at the continued power breakdown. My mother has been unwell, and she is too old to realize that power cuts are not in our control. I suggest that inefficient KESC staff be laid off immediately after privatization,” he said.
A resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 13-D, said: “I called the centralized complaint centre to tell them about the power breakdown in our locality. I was really not surprised when the telephone operator told me that power supply to our locality had been switched off because of a shortage of electricity. I wonder why the KESC does not have the moral courage to announce that it is carrying out loadshedding,” he said.
A resident of Federal B Area, Block 18, told Dawn that his locality had been without electricity since afternoon. “We have called the complaint centre many times, but the KESC staff might have not been able to tell us exactly why the power breakdown occurred in the first place. They have given me a variety of reasons, ranging from cable fault to some disturbance in the pole-mounted transformer which supplies electricity to our locality,” he said.
A resident of Bahadurabad told Dawn that his locality had multiple power breakdowns the previous night from 10pm to 1am. A resident of Federal B Area, Block 16, said his locality remained without electricity on Tuesday from 1pm to 5pm.
A resident of Korangi 2-1/2 said his locality also experienced a two-hour power breakdown.
Rexar Lane also remained without electricity for two hours.
Calling from Gulshan-i-Umair, Scheme 33, a resident said that for the past three days they had a power breakdown every night. “And even when there is electricity, we don’t have one or two phases,” he said.
A resident of Landhi, Zamanabad, said his locality experienced two power breakdowns on Tuesday -– one from 6am to 8am and the other in the afternoon.
According to a resident of PECHS, Block 2, his locality experienced a two-hour power breakdown on Tuesday. A resident from Gulistan-i-Jauhar VIP Block-16 said late in the night that electricity had been playing “hide-and-seek” since midday.
But a spokesman for the KESC said no major power breakdown occurred on Tuesday. He added that the few power breakdowns that might have occurred on Tuesday were because of localized problems. He said afternoon showers did not adversely affect the transmission and distribution system of the KESC.
KARACHI, June 21: The ill-maintained transmission and distribution network of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation broke down in many locations of the city as the ongoing heatwave intensified on Tuesday. Sources in the centralized complaint centre said that while the KESC infrastructure was already doing badly, unexpected afternoon showers struck a bitter blow to the transmission and distribution system.
