KARACHI: People brave another day of power breakdowns
By Arman Sabir
KARACHI, Sept 23: Citizens endured frequent and prolonged power failures on Friday night and Saturday while hot and humid conditions prevailed in the city.
Ailing people at home and hospitals, already perturbed by harsh weather conditions, were particularly dismayed over the off and on breakdowns that denied them the ultimate relief through fans.
People of Orangi and Baldia towns took to the street against the prolonged power failures in their localities and blocked a thoroughfare with bonfire on Saturday evening.
They said that their localities had been subjected to five to six hour long power breakdowns during the daytime and similar power cuts during night hours for many days. They said that many complaints were lodged by the residents of Raja Tanveer Colony, Raees Amrohvi Colony, Ittehad Town and Mohammad Khan Colony in this regard but to no avail.
During the protest, the vehicular traffic on the road remained suspended until police rushed in to clear the artery. However, disturbances were continuing till the filing of this report.
The Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation on Saturday resorted to exercising one-hour loadshedding on a rotation basis across the city to meet the shortfall of 150-200 megawatt in power generation.
A spokesman for the KESC said that the power utility was facing shortage because of the increase in demand owing to the shooting up of mercury. He said that some localised faults had developed in certain areas but KESC staff got the same rectified to reenergised the affected areas accordingly.
Contradicting his claim, citizens from various localities complained that they had suffered frequent and prolonged power cuts on Friday night and Saturday, and strongly criticised the KESC complaint centres for continuing with their poor performance.
They said that they saw no relief coming to them even in the month of fasting, starting on Monday. They apprehended that the KESC might force them to have Sehri and Iftar in darkness in the entire month.
An irate resident from Block-4/A, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, said that frequent power failures in his locality had been a routine for long. During the previous night, electricity went off from 6pm to 7pm, 12 midnight to 1am and 1:30am to 2:30am, and again at noon on Saturday for two hours and at 6:30pm for more than one hour, he said.
A furious consumer from Block-13/A, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, said that intermittent power breakdowns had become order of the day. He said that the power would go off at 6am for one hour as a daily routine, but the supply was being suspended at 2pm for one hour and 8pm for another two hours. Disruption during whole night was also an added misery.
A citizen of Block-18, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, said that two-hour power failure during the previous night irritated the residents of his locality who could not have a sound sleep.
Another resident from Billy’s Tower, Rashid Minhas Road, said that power supply to his locality was suspended after midnight for two hours, disturbing residents’ sleep. It was in addition to the intermittent power failures on the following day, Saturday, he added.
Since Friday morning, power supply situation in Korangi Crossing localities has been the worst, said an angry consumer. During the last 30 hours, there have been breakdowns for five times, totalling at least nine hours, he added.
