KARACHI, March 29: Residents of various localities in the metropolis complained of intermittent and prolonged power suspensions on Thursday. A consumer from Pak Colony said that power supply to the area was suspended at 6am and restored at 11am. He said it was again suspended at 6pm and was not restored till 8.15pm. He said that power supply to the area was also regularly suspended at night.

Another caller from Asifabad said that power supply to the area was suspended at 5pm and restored at 7.30pm. He said that most of the residents of the area were associated with the marble industry, and in case of power failure they were unable to earn their livelihood.

A source in KESC said that owing to a shortfall of 40 megawatts electricity, the power utility was observing zone-wise load-shedding for one hour. It was said that the present power demand was 2050 megawatts, while the supply was 2010 megawatts.

Reports of power failures were also received from Clifton, Defence, I.I. Chundrigar Road, North Karachi and Nazimabad.A KESC spokesman, when contacted, said that power supply and demand was between 1900 and 2000 megawatts and there was no shortfall to his knowledge. He asked consumers to maintain contact with the local KESC complaint offices for early rectification of faults.