KARACHI, July 3: Residents in various localities braved another day of intermittent electricity disruptions and unannounced loadshedding on Monday. An additional 100 megawatts was injected into the KESC system by Wapda, but the power utility failed to overcome the perpetual crisis.

People from various localities said that power went off four to six times during the day while the temperature was 36 degree Celsius with 57 per cent humidity. They feared yet another sleepless night ahead if load-shedding and breakdowns ran into the night also.

A spokesman for the KESC said that the load-shedding had been carried out across the city to meet the power shortfall of 120 megawatts. He, however, said that no major breakdown had occurred during the day though there were localised faults in some areas which were rectified accordingly.

A resident of Defence, Phase VI, Asad Qazalbash, said that the power went off for two hours four times during the day. He said that the concerned complaint centre’s number remained busy but luckily he got through the operator once and was told that it was due to the load-shedding.

A resident of Defence, Phase IV, Mr Adnan, said that power supply to this area was suspended at around 12:30am and restored at 5:30am on Monday.

Resultantly, the residents of the whole area, including the locality behind the Defence graveyard, had to spend a sleepless night. Surprisingly, all the lights across the graveyard remained energised while the populated areas had no power. It seemed that the graveyard area was exempted from the load-shedding, he added.

An irate consumer Ehtesham from Gulshan-i-Iqbal Block-5 said that the KESC resorted to 90 minutes power load shedding in the afternoon and again the electricity supply was suspended for another three hours during night. "The KESC should compensate to its consumers for tormenting them instead of issuing exorbitant bills", he added.

A resident of Block-6, PECHS, said that power breakdowns in his locality had become order of the day but the KESC was doing nothing to improve the situation.

Jaffar Kudia, President of the Jodia Bazaar Shopkeepers Association, said that the government had forced traders to close down their business activity by 8pm to help conserve electricity. However, he added, there was no respite in power load-shedding as prolonged power failures did continue unabated. This was affecting business and commercial activities badly, he observed.

He pointed out that power would usually go off at least for two hours three or four times in a day in the Jodia Bazaar area. Besides, the same situation would continue during night hours. Even when the power is restored, the voltage fluctuation would pose a constant threat to electrical appliances.

Mr Shehryar from Block-16A, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, said that the power supply to his area was suspended for two hours on Sunday night which forced people to wake up in the hot and humid weather. He said that the UPS did not work for want of charging as continuous power supply was not maintained.