KARACHI: Prolonged power cuts in Nazimabad, Liaquatabad: Snapping of cable
By Arman Sabir
KARACHI, March 21: People in Liaquatabad, Nazimabad and adjoining localities suffered a prolonged power breakdown on Monday night and Tuesday owing to a damage caused to a high tension underground cable during excavation for the construction of a subway by the City Government near Gharibabad.
The power supply could not be restored to some areas till late on Tuesday night.
According to a city government statement, repair work on the damaged power supply line in Liaquatabad has been started and the supply is expected to be restored by Wednesday noon.
Reports of power breakdowns were also received from many other parts of the city, including Korangi and Gulshan-i-Iqbal.
People said as KESC phones remained busy, their efforts to contact the complaint centres proved futile, and they passed sleepless night on Monday.
A number of consumers stated that as annual examinations of their children were about to begin, they could not concentrate on their studies in the absence of power.
“There were sick people also who suffered owing to the breakdown,” said a consumer in Nazimabad.
A KESC spokesman said, in a statement, that a 132 KV extra high tension underground cable connection between Civic Centre and Liaquatabad and which leads to Haroonabad Grid Station got damaged at two places during development work in progress in the area.
He said the main line had broken at 4:45am due to excavation near Gharibabad for shifting of gas lines. Only two days back, the same line extending to Haroonabad Grid suffered damage under the Nazimabad overhead bridge and was in the process of repair, he added.
A consumer from Nazimabad said he was a college professor and had to write something, but due to unavailability of electricity, he was forced to do his work in candlelight. He said the power was disconnected 2am on Tuesday and it could not be restored till late night.
Another resident of Nazimabad said the power supply which was discontinued early Tuesday morning was restored at 2pm only for three hours. It was again switched off at 5pm and was not restored till 9.30 pm on Tuesday.
In Federal “B” Area’s Block-20, a consumer stated that prolonged power failures were routine, and KESC officials do not entertain consumers’ grievances.
He said that the underground power cables were exposed after the construction work for a flyover was initiated at Sohrab Goth. The KESC officials did not shift them to the alternative place. Besides, the power failure was a constant problem in the locality for which several complaints had been lodged with the power utility but to no avail.
The KESC spokesman stated that as a result of snapping of EHT underground cable, power supply to Liaquatabad Grid had completely been stopped and could not be back-fed because of damage on both sides of the Civic Centre-Liaquatabad-Haroonabad EHT line.
He further stated that the consumers being fed from the affected grid would continue to suffer till the damaged line is repaired which may take at least three days.
However, the other affected areas would be connected to grid stations of Civic Centre, Federal B Area and North Nazimabad by Tuesday night. However, consumers may suffer interruptions due to technical constraints.
The KESC has regretted the inconvenience caused to the people and appealed to the consumers of Liaquatabad, Nazimabad, Federal B. Area and North Nazimabad to cooperate with the utility and use power with prudence to avoid overloading.
Meanwhile, the City District Government Karachi has apologised on the hardship encountered by the residents of Liaquatabad due to damage caused to underground electric cable during development work at Liaquatabad underpass, adds APP.
According to City Government, the Nazim Karachi took immediate notice of the incident and issued directives for immediate repair of the cable.
A City Government statement said repair work has been started forthwith and power supply would be restored by Wednesday noon.
The City Nazim has directed the concerned authorities to ensure that supply of utility services are not affected during execution of development works.
