KARACHI, April 27: While residential consumers have been enduring unannounced power shutdowns, KESC has now shifted its focus towards industrial areas, affecting productivity.
Industrialists said they had high hopes that the performance of KESC would improve after the privatisation but the utility company under the new management had virtually failed to live up to the expectations of consumers.
Although many industries have acquired standby generators, industrialists said they could not run them for longer periods due to rising fuel costs.
Due to frequent power failures, industrial consumers have to manage costly power generating machines whose imports increased by 45 per cent to $398 million during July-March 2005-06 from $275 million in the same period last year.
Korangi Association of Trade and Industry Chairman Gulzar Firoz said that frequent power breakdowns had been gaining momentum for the last one week.
He said 70 per cent industrial units had standby generators, but they did not have the ability to run them on full capacity. “Hardly 20 per cent of the industrial units are running their generators on full capacity.”
“Generator is not a solution to frequent power breakdowns,” Mr Firoz said, adding that leather and tannery industries had been facing tremendous problems as they were engaged in meeting export orders of foreign buyers for the incoming winter season.
He said the performance of the new KESC management had been unsatisfactory as it had failed to deliver the required services contemplated after the privatisation. “Power problem is graver this year than last year.”
“The city has been totally paralysed by the frequent power breakdowns and it will be difficult for industries to meet export targets at a time when the fiscal year is heading for closure,” he said.
He said despite KESC’s assurance that there would be no more power crisis and the new management would do its utmost to give better results, the problem of power failures were still there. “The government should take immediate remedial measures to improve the situation.”
Former Site Association of Industry chairman Majyd Aziz said that hardly 25 per cent of industrial units had standby generators and one could guess how much losses the industries suffered while relying on KESC. The power breakdown actually breaks up the pace of productivity.
Site Association acting chairman Saboor Ahmed said the industries had been facing worst load-shedding since April 25. He said KESC had issued a notice on Wednesday to the association that load-shedding would be carried out due to a fault on main 220kv linking circuit between Bin Qasim power station and Korangi Creek Road grid station. The notice said that a theft attempt had been made on its blue conductor. On Thursday the KESC had issued the same notice regarding the theft attempt without indicating when repair work would be completed.
Mr Ahmed said industrialists were not satisfied with the performance of the KESC. He said that out of 59 feeders in the Site area, 85 per cent feeders are victim of overloading and tripping causing frequent power breakdowns.
F.B. Area Association of Trade and Industry Chairman Rehan Zeeshan said KESC was carrying out two to four hours power shutdowns daily without any prior announcement.
He said that only 10-15 per cent industries out of 2,500 small to large scale units had standby generators, but these generators could not be run on full capacity. He said only three per cent industries had shifted to self-power generating units.
North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry Chairman Dawood Usman Jhakoora said that KESC had made a regular feature of switching off power from 4.30pm to 10.30pm for the last three days in the area.
“How could industries function smoothly when 80 per cent industries out of over 2,500 units are dependent on KESC?” he asked, adding that hardly 20 per cent units have standby generators.
He said export-oriented units could not fulfil their export commitments on time as they depended on the supply of raw material and other items from small units which were also experiencing power failures.
Alliance of Market Association Chairman Atiq Mir said that city markets had been facing the worst power crisis for the last 10-15 days, thus causing millions of rupees losses to daily business.
All Pakistan Marble Mining Processing Industry and Exporters Association Chairman Sanaullah Khan said marble industries in the Manghopir area had been facing severe hardships for the last seven days due to non-availability of power. He said many industries had to close operations as they failed to furnish timely export orders and many buyers had cancelled their orders.
A delegation of the association informed the KESC high-ups in a meeting that the marble industry people would launch a protest if power is not restored within 24 hours.
KESC director Shahab Ullah said he did not know that the Manghopir area had been facing power shutdowns for the last seven days, says a press release of the association.
KARACHI, April 27: While residential consumers have been enduring unannounced power shutdowns, KESC has now shifted its focus towards industrial areas, affecting productivity.
