KARACHI, June 1: The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation resorted to load-shedding to the tune of 400MW as one of the units of the Bin Qasim Power Station became out of order on Friday morning.
A day after the repair of Unit No 2 was completed, the Unit No 3 ceased to function and citizens were left without electricity for several hours. The power utility’s failure to ensure uninterrupted supply pushed the city into a water crisis as some water pumping stations too could not operate in the absence of electricity.
Sources said the repaired Unit No 2 was generating half of its capacity, adding to public miseries.
The city could face water and electricity riots if this trend continued amid dwindling generation capacity of the KESC which on Friday was forced to resort to load-shedding in two groups at a time, leaving almost half of the city without power supply.
The KESC had divided its system into four groups for the purpose of load-shedding which was stretching beyond two hours in each cycle.
Each group was supposed to undergo load-shedding four times a day but actually many areas suffered even prolonged outages.
The power utility was unable to explain as to why different units of the Bin Qasim Power Station go out of action every now and then despite reports of refurbishing the facility to extract optimum energy.
As the mercury touched 37.5 degrees Celsius on Friday afternoon, residents of different areas had their minds reeling in the absence of electricity.
