KARACHI, May 4: People were forced to pass sleepless night while prolonged power breakdowns continued unabated in various localities on Thursday. The disruption in power supply is being attributed to ‘infighting’ within the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, highly placed sources said.
However, a spokesman for the KESC has again accused Wapda of reducing supply through two circuits in Jamshoro which, the KESC said, had decreased from the agreed 550 to merely 220 megawatts.
A Wapda official, when contacted, refuted the claim, saying that Wapda had was supplying to the KESC 570MW which was more than the mutually agreed quantum. He said the KESC should upgrade its system and improve the performance.
On the contrary, sources in the KESC said that a recent major reshuffle in the KESC by the new management might have caused the power crisis in the city as the reshuffle of top officials in the engineering, networking and customer service sections had created a mess in managing power generation, transmission and distribution systems.
Insiders said that the KESC had now been divided in three major sections i.e. engineering, networking and customer services.
The engineering department is responsible of power generation; networking section looks after the transmission and distribution of power; and the customer services handles billing and complaints.
The new management, it is learnt, has appointed new section heads on the positions earlier occupied by army personnel. Besides, some other senior officers have been removed from their current positions.
The two senior officers have been sent home on forced leave for six weeks and another five officers have been transferred from their posts, according to the sources. The new management has termed it an improvement in the system while the old staff in the KESC looked it as intimidation aimed against the existing officers and workers.
The transfers and sending two chief engineers on forced leave a week back has created unrest among officials, making it difficult for the new management to improve performance of the power utility.
The KESC spokesman, however, claimed that the transfers and postings were part of the restructuring exercise in the organisation.
Regarding the matter of alleged forced leave, he said that the two senior officers had themselves applied for the leave and their applications had been duly approved.
He said no loadshedding was being carried out in the city. “We were supplied 220MW power from the Wapda link of Jamshoro from 10pm on Wednesday to 10am on Thursday. Due to the short supply, many areas could not be supplied electricity.”
He said that the power failures in various areas were not because of the problems in the distribution system but due to the short supply from Wapda, and as soon as the normal supply of 550MW resumed at 10am on Thursday, the situation in the city also became normal, the spokesman claimed.
Contradicting the KESC claim, Mohammad Anwar Khalid, Member Power of Wapda, said: “Power supply to the KESC from Wednesday to Thursday ranged between 550 and 570 megawatts. Wapda is not at fault… rather it has been supplying power more than the quantum agreed between the two entities.”
Mr Khalid, talking to Dawn over telephone from Lahore, said that Wapda at times had supplied up to 660MW to the KESC through the Jamshoro circuit.
He said that although the transmission capacity of the two circuits was only 550MW, Wapda had been taking risk of making excessive supplies so that Karachiites did not suffer power breakdowns.
He maintained that the KESC ought to upgrade its transmission and distribution system to take the load. He hoped that the new management would try to bring about improvement.
About the Hubco-Baldia link, he said that the link would help save 30MW power loss which took place in supply through the Jamshoro link due to the long distance and weak lines.
He said that the work on the Hubco-Baldia link was almost complete and hopefully it would be inaugurated by May 15.
He said that the system had the capacity of carrying 500MW but it could bear the load of 550MW.
People in various localities of Karachi complained of intermittent power failures on Wednesday night and Thursday. The affected areas included Defence Housing Authority, Clifton, Mohammad Ali Society, Federal B Area, North Nazimabad, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Liaquatabad, Nazimabad, Soldier Bazaar, Old town, Ranchore Line, Korangi, Orangi Town, etc.
Ms Kishwar Mateen from Mohammad Ali Cooperative Housing Society said that power supply to her locality was discontinued for the third time on Thursday.
She said that she had lodged a complaint with the KESC where the staff replied that the feeder had become weak and it would take at least two to three years to repair the same.
She insisted on getting it repaired sooner, on which the staff responded that she could make another complaint to the press, but the feeder could not be repaired or replaced immediately.
ALTAF’S CALL: Founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Altaf Hussain has urged President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to immediately intervene to provide relief to the people from power failures which were constantly causing great difficulties to them, according to a press release.
In a statement issued from London on Thursday, he said that due to frequent power failures, students were facing hardship in preparing for their examination while surgeries and treatment at numerous hospitals were being put off, threatening the health or life of patients, especially those seriously ill.
He drew the president’s and prime minister’s attention to the problem of water scarcity that was being caused by the disruption in power supply as common people were failing to get drinking water regularly and adequately.
