KARACHI, Sept 20: The ill-maintained and fragile distribution system of the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation again failed to withstand the sizzling weather and developed numerous faults resulting in prolonged and intermittent power failures in various localities.

About 10 major cable faults developed on Tuesday night – four in Saddar, another four in Clifton and two in Gulistan-i-Jauhar localities – where the KESC wasted hours in procedural matters (required under newly developed system) before rectifying only one of the four cable faults in Clifton on Wednesday. The faults caused prolonged power failures in Saddar, Clifton and Gulistan-i-Jauhar. It is not known as to how many more hours the KESC needs to rectify all of the cable faults.

Shopkeepers and residents of Clifton staged a protest demonstration at the Teen Talwar intersection, where they made bonfires to express their anger over the prolonged power outages.

“We have some difficulty in repairing the fault in the underground cable in Delhi Colony where the cable is submerged by sewage,” a KESC official said.

He said parts of Delhi Colony would have to bear the power failure for some more hours until it was rectified. Many parts of Saddar had been without power for hours and engineers were working hard to energize the area in the shortest possible time, the official added.

Besides, the KESC was faced with 169mw shortfall in power generation at around 9am and resorted to load shedding on rotation across the city. Insiders in the KESC said the new system designed by the private managers of the utility was causing unnecessary delays in attending to faults and breakdowns and ultimately resulting in suffering to the consumers.

In the previous system, a complaint about cable fault was entertained and cable was replaced or rectified immediately by a local KESC office. However, under the new system a local complaint receiving office was now required to pass on the complaint to a centralized network section, which in turn would assign a KESC van concerned to detect the fault.

Having detected the fault, the van officials would file a report about the fault again to the network section for material (cables and other necessary accessories, etc) required to rectify the fault and the section concerned would issue the accessories after the receipt of a written request. As the procedure has been made lengthy and complicated, it naturally takes time to rectify the fault.

An agitated retired official of the Sui Southern Gas Company, Akbar Ishrat Hussain, from Phase of VI of Defence Housing Authority rang up at 11.10pm to say that his locality had no power supply since 7pm.

Mahreen from Gulshan-i-Iqbal Block-10 said that the residents of her locality spent a sleepless night as there was no electricity. She said power supply remained playing hide-and-seek all the day long during the hot weather. Another similar complaint was received from Block-11 of Gulshan-i-Iqbal where a consumer complained about a prolonged power breakdown in his area. He said the local and centralized complaint numbers remained busy.

A woman consumer from Parsi Colony in Soldier Bazaar No 1 said that a fault in the KESC’s system developed daily at around 11:30pm in her locality. “What type of fault is this that develops daily and it is rectified in three to four hours?” she asked and expressed her apprehension that KESC officials had provided illegal connection to some commercial or residential building in the area that might be causing not only massive fluctuations but also prolonged power failures.

Iqbal from Clifton Block-5 said: “We are fed up with the poor performance of the power utility. Our business has suffered losses and the CBR is demanding tax returns. It may extend the date of tax returns and provide some relief as the businessmen are faced with losses due to the heavy rains and then prolonged and intermittent power failures”.

Mrs Habib from Clifton Block-3 said power supply was off from 10am to 11am, from 2pm to 4:30pm and again at 9:30pm. “I called the complaint centre where ill-mannered officials of the KESC rudely told me the power might be switched off for a fourth time too.”

Another consumer, Mrs Khan from Phase V on Khayaban-i-Bahria of Defence, said power supply was switched off twice for two hours each during the day and another two times during the night, forcing residents to spend sleepless night. She said there should be a timetable for power load shedding so that residents could mange their schedule accordingly.

Kaneez Fatima from Paradise Palace Apartment on Sarwar Shaheed Road said intermittent power failures had made the lives of residents miserable. She said the localized and centralized complaint numbers were always found busy.

A resident from Jamshed Road No.1 said that the nightlong power failures had become a routine and the residents had to spend sleepless night for the past few days. He said power supply was also disrupted during the day twice or thrice.

Residents of Federal B Area in Blocks 2, 3, 6, 7, 14, 15, 17 and 20 complained that power supply was being disrupted frequently in their localities during the day and at night as well. They said that fluctuation in power supply also posed a constant threat to electrical and electronic appliances.