KARACHI: Complaints of electricity breakdowns on the rise
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, May 16: While people complained about prolonged electricity breakdowns in several localities on Tuesday, the power utility claimed that it did not resort to load-shedding in any of city locality as the fault in the
Bin Qasim Thermal Power Plant had been rectified.
A KESC spokesman said one of the power generating units in Bin Qasim Thermal Power Plant, which was shut down due to leakage of hydrogen gas on Monday morning, but was repaired at 4pm on Tuesday, and the power supply situation has normalised.
He said since the unit was operational, no power loadshedding was being resorted to in the city. He said that during the peak hours from 7pm to 1am, the power demand was met accordingly and there was no need for loadshedding. About power failures in various localities, he said these were due to localized faults.
Tariq Ali, a resident from Landhi-4 Zamanabad, said the KESC did not inform people about the nature of a fault which developed exactly at 1pm and was rectified at 5pm.
He said his locality again plunged into darkness for another two hours at 8pm. It has been happening daily for the past three days, he said.
Another consumer, Tufail from Edward Street, Garden East, said his locality experienced a nine-hour-long breakdown as power supply was suspended at 1am and it was restored at around 10am.
He said he frequently dialled the local KESC complaint number 9215200, but it remained busy.
Residents from Gulistan-i-Jauhar8217fs Block 16-A, Block-17, and Block-18 said that power failures in their localities have become a routine and the KESC officials were not giving a satisfactory reply.
Similarly, the residents of Defence Housing Authority and Clifton complained of intermittent power failures in their localities.
A resident of Malir Halt phoned stated that breakdowns had been occurring in his locality for the last three days, and there was no letup in power failures.
He said his locality experienced breakdowns in the morning and in the evening.A resident of KDA Scheme-1 said intermittent power failures have made the life of residents miserable.
Meanwhile, City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal said here on Tuesday that he would suggest to the Sindh governor and the chief minister to immediately enforce Shops Act in Karachi whereby all shopping malls and centres would be required to close their businesses after sunset.Such a step would help KESC meet its shortfall of 200 megawatts, and would also result in doing away with the frequent load-shedding currently being resorted to in citys residential areas, he said, adding if both the governor and the chief minister agree on enforcing the Shops Act, it would not remain enforced for a longer period, but only till the peak summer season is over.
In reply to a query, he said pharmacies and food outlets would be exempted from the Act.
