KARACHI: People suffer as KESC fails to repair faults
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 26: The power supply situation improved considerably on Tuesday following the Sunday’s major power crisis across the country but many localities experienced prolonged and intermittent power breakdowns.
Citizens in several areas complained that the KESC had become callous as they do not take preventive measures to reduce shutdowns and improve the power supply situation. It also failed to provide electricity to disturbed areas with alternative options.
They were of the view that because they pay bills to the KESC, it was their right to get uninterrupted power supply.
A spokesman for the KESC said that the utility was receiving up to 700 MW power from Wapda.
However, the abrupt interruption in power supply was caused by under frequency which resulted in tripping in many grid stations.
This was the reason of frequent power failures and as soon as under frequency problem is overcome, the problem would be resolved.
He said the KESC resorted to one hour loadshedding on rotation basis in the evening peak hours.
About prolonged power failures in certain localities, he said those areas must have experienced some localized faults and the KESC system was working properly.
People said they had lodged several complaints with the KESC complaint numbers, but either the numbers were busy or the attitude of the operators was non-serious and they failed to cite any reason about power failures.
Shahzeb from KDA Overseas Bungalows in Block 16-A, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, said his locality was faced with eight-hour long power breakdown from 8pm to 4am and the people spent a sleepless night.
“The UPS installed at our home stopped working after three to four hours as their batteries discharged. All people in our area do not have UPS or generators and we spent a terrible night in the warm weather in the presence of mosquitoes,” he added.
A woman consumer from Parsi Colony in Soldier Bazaar No 1 said her locality experienced a blackout the previous night and the power supply was restored for two hours from 1pm to 3pm. It again went and did not come back.
“The Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation should replace the word Supply with Shutdown”, she advised.
Another woman consumer from Block-4 in Clifton said her locality experienced four power breakdowns during the daytime as the PMT in her locality got overloaded due to heavy load being consumed by the house of a federal minister on her street.
Mariam from Block-17 in Federal B Area said the power supply was disrupted as soon as Azaan-i-Fajr began and it was restored after an hour. The power again went off after 10 minutes and came back after 90 minutes.
A consumer from Block-1 in FB Area said the power supply continued to play hide-and-seek all the day and night.
Another consumer from Baghdadi said the power remained on and off and several complaints were lodged with the KESC local complaint centre, but to no avail.
Meanwhile, power riots broke out in Landhi’s Shah Latif Town locality where people blocked the National Highway and lit bonfires to express their anger over prolonged power failures.
Residents of the locality experienced a sleepless night and lodged several complaints with the KESC office. The power utility failed to restore the power supply on Tuesday and the area residents came out, pelted the vehicles with stones and blocked traffic on the National Highway. They also lit bonfires on the main road.
Area police reached tried to disperse the agitating people. The police coordinated with KESC officials, and got the broken wires repaired.
Following the police intervention, the power supply was restored and the area residents dispersed.
