KARACHI, June 9: Enraged power consumers fought pitched battles with police in several localities of the city on Saturday following collapse of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation’s power generation and distribution system that rendered almost entire city without electricity.
The stand-by alternative arrangements made by the KESC also failed to provide relief to consumers.
According to reports, the KESC’s 12 grid stations collapsed at around mid-day. Already perturbed by the regular load-shedding of six-hour a day, power consumers in many localities resorted to staging street protests, chanting slogans against the power utility and setting old tyres and furniture on fire in the middle of several roads. They also attacked vehicles and public properties with stones.
In an unprecedented development, riots also broke out in the otherwise peaceful localities of Clifton where people set afire junk beneath the underpass at Schon Circle and near Teen Talwar. At some places, protesters indulged in scuffles with the police.
Police lobbed teargas shells to disperse mobs indulging in violent agitation on Abdullah Haroon Road. The violent reaction caused traffic jams at Teen Talwar, Punjab Colony, Saddar, Shaheed-i-Millat Road, as well as Liaquatabad, Nazimabad and other parts of the city.
According to sources, the power crisis deepened when the KCR-Bin Qasim 220kv circuit tripped, knocking out 12 grid stations of the KESC.
The areas fed by the grid stations at Jacob Line, Gizri, Defence, Clifton, Garden, Elander Road, Queens Road, Old Town and Lalazar were first to go without power.
According to sources, a fire in the compressor room of the Lalazar grid station gutted cables and rendered the auto-transformer system out of order.
“It seems that the KESC is part of a conspiracy hatched against the government,” said Mr Taqi, General-Secretary of the Saddar Cooperative Market Association, while condemning the unendurable load-shedding and power breakdowns.
