KARACHI: Consumers’ woes, rage fail to bring respite: Power crisis persists
By Arman Sabir
KARACHI, June 29: There was no end to the sufferings of the residents of many localities in the city where power breakdowns persisted for the eighth consecutive day, Thursday.
With no respite in sight, people in despair again took to the streets to give vent to their anger as they lit bonfire and littered roads with bricks, disrupting vehicular traffic at many intersections.
While the new KESC management would not come out with a proper explanation for its failure to ensure a smooth power supply to its consumers, the Sindh governor and Karachi nazim sought intervention by the Centre to help end the perpetual ordeal of the people of Karachi.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, in their separate calls, also demanded intervention by President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, besides appealing the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of the crisis. (Reports on Page 19).
A night-long power breakdown in Liaquatabad, Rizvia Society, Pak Colony, Patel Para, Jamshed Quarters and parts of Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Gulistan-i-Jauhar forced people to stage protest demonstrations and raise slogans against the KESC.
Protesters lit bonfire in Patel Para, Paposh Nagar, Rizvia, Jehangir Road, main University Road and Gulistan-i-Jauhar’s Block-2 to give vent to their anger. Some of the enraged protesters said that prolonged power failures in their area had made their life miserable and created the additional problem of water shortage. They said that KESC officials at complaint centres would not attend phone calls. They demanded of the government to intervene in the matter and ensure a smooth power supply.
Power crisis this year struck the city in April and deepened with every passing day. Tripping of power feeders, bursting of boilers at generation plants, snapping of high-tension lines, and rupturing of underground high-tension cables appeared to be some of the causes of the power failures occurring over the past three months.
However, the KESC management maintains that Wapda, which is supposed to provide 550 megawatts to the KESC for Karachi, should also be blamed for the crisis as it had reduced the supply, ultimately causing major breakdowns. On the contrary, Wapda claims that it has been providing more than 600 megawatts to the KESC but the transmission and distribution system of the KESC was not strong enough to bear the load and it collapses intermittently.
Besides, the protests by the residents of some areas, the people living in various areas continued to ring up the newspaper office to inform about the power situation in their respective localities.
A resident of Nagan Chowrangi in Sector 14-B, said that the government had forced traders to close down their shops after 8pm to help conserve electricity, but power would still go off for several hours a day.
“I live in the Maria Apartments. There are welding workshops, in front of my residence, which remain open till late in the night and no one would check their activity.”
Mr Hashim, a resident of Gulshan-i-Maymar, said that four to five times the power supply would be suspended for on hour each on a daily basis. Ms Hira from Sector 8, North Karachi, said that the power supply was disrupted every day between 6pm and 9pm and between 11pm and 1am. This disruption was in addition to the regular load-shedding from 3am to 5am and again from 8am to 11am, she added.
Mr Faisal from PECHS said that his locality was without power the whole Wednesday night and on Thursday, the supply remained off and on. The KESC’s local complaint centre (4556716) would not respond, he said. “I drove to the complaint centre and saw the officials sitting there with the receiver of the telephone set lying off the cradle. I talked to one of them, who introduced himself as Mr Ayub, who said he could do nothing.”
Mr Muzaffar, from Block 4-A, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, said that power supply to his area was restored at around 1.30am (Thursday) after a gap of 40 hours, but was suspended again at 4pm. Dheeraj Kumar from Block 14, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, said that power went off twice, from 9am to 10am and again from 3pm to 6pm in his locality.
A power consumer, Mr Aziz, from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 13/D/III, said that power supply remained suspended for several hours, though it was restored for a while.
Another consumer from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 13-A, Aliza said that electricity went off at 5am for one hour and then at 9am for 90 minutes more. The power supply was again suspended at 1pm and was restored at 5pm.
Mr Moin from Block-18, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, said that power went off at 10am and came back at noon. It again went off at 5pm and came back at 6pm.
Power supply remained suspended in certain parts of the Shah Faisal Colony and its adjoining localities, including Green Town, Asifabad, Reta Plot, Azeempura and Al-Falah Society.
Ms Madiha Syed, a resident of Asifabad, said the electricity kept on playing hide-and-seek whole the day. “I could not sleep whole the night also due to the intermittent breakdowns,” she said. “Power supply was discontinued at around noon for three hours and resorted for the next two hours only. We are again without electricity and no one knows when it would be restored now,” she lamented.
Mr Tufail from Garden East said that the power supply was disrupted thrice a day on Thursday in the localities of Edward Street and Manekjee Street.
Ms Shehla from Jamshed Quarters said that the power supply remained suspended the whole night.
KARACHI, June 29: There was no end to the sufferings of the residents of many localities in the city where power breakdowns persisted for the eighth consecutive day, Thursday.
