Shops, offices to switch off lights at 8pm from Monday
By Shamim-ur-Rahman
KARACHI, May 4: Shopping and commercial centres in the city will be required to switch off their lights at 8 pm from Monday as part of nationwide power conservation efforts.
But the move will not provide much relief to the people of Karachi, because there would be loadshedding of a minimum of 30-minute duration, given the current power supply situation, worsened by the sudden going off the grid of the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanupp). Till the restoration of power supply from the Kanupp the city will face a daily shortage of 135 to 140MW.
Because of the revised timings of shopping centres, the power shortfall would be reduced to 60MW and duration of the loadshedding cut to between 30 and 45 minutes.
Commercial centres will be allowed to remain open on Saturdays till midnight.
The All Pakistan Organisation of Small Traders has rejected the conservation plan and declared to hold protest rallies from May 15. They will observe a hunger strike outside the Karachi Press Club on Saturday.
Details of the national conservation plan were announced by federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi at a news conference her on Friday. He claimed that closure of shopping centers by 8 pm had become essential for conserving electricity for avoiding loadshedding and brining down its duration. He said that medical stores, hospitals and clinics and bakeries would be exempted from these load management restrictions.
He said that industries would operate under a staggering schedule. Similarly, tube-wells will operate in the night from 10 pm to 6 am. Lights of all neon-signs and billboards will be switched off.
The minister concedes serious defaults in the performance of the KESC, saying that its private management did not honour its commitments about increasing generation capacity and improving its outdated distribution system for ensuring uninterrupted power supply. Through the conservation plan, Mr Jatoi said, the government was expecting to save 500 to 550 MW nationwide. "As for today the country is facing a shortfall of 460 MW and we need special measures to overcome this situation."
Mr Jatoi said that every year there was 10 per cent increase in power demand in the country due to expansion and revitalisation of industrial activities, increasing number of air-conditioners and village electrification.
He said that factories and industrial units had been requested to stop the functioning of their major production units during peak electricity consumption hours, and claimed that representatives of owners of industrial units had agreed to the government's proposal.
He said that the government had signed 10 agreements in the power sector, which would ensure up to 1200 MW generation of additional electricity for national consumption. Besides, a recently signed memorandum of understanding for import of electricity from Iran and Tajikistan, he added, would substantially improve the power-generation and supply situation.
