KARACHI, Dec 23: The city received first winter showers in the wee hours of Sunday, which continued intermittently throughout the day making the weather pleasant but exposing the inefficiency of the civic agencies, particularly of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC).

The ill-maintained transmission and distribution system of the power utility became the first victim of Sunday’s rain as power supply to a number of localities was disrupted causing hardship to the residents who were celebrating the third day of Eid-ul-Azha.

As people continued to sacrifice their animals on the third day of Eid, the rain badly hampered the city government and towns’ cleanliness and offal removal work.

The Met Office has recorded around 11.17 millimetre rain at different locations of the city. Residents of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, PECHS, some phases of Defence and Clifton, Gulistan-i-Jauhar and some other localities experienced hours-long power breakdowns and power supply to these localities was restored after a passage of 10 to 14 hours. Till our filing of this report, power supply to various localities could not be restored.

However, a spokesman for the power utility said that there was no major power breakdown anywhere in the city and the KESC’s generation and transmission system was functioning smoothly. The temperature had dropped due to which power consumption in the city had also been reduced, he said, adding that the overall power demand was between 1,400 to 1,500 megawatts and there was no shortage.

He said that the power supply to some localities of the city had been disrupted due to tripping of power feeders and cable faults. “Maybe rectification of faults in some area takes longer time as keeping in view the safety measures our engineers and staff cannot work during rain. Similarly, faults in underground cable can only be repaired after draining of rainwater,” he said.

Even though, rainwater did not accumulate on any of the major arteries of the metropolis, streets and lanes within the jurisdiction of towns were inundated with water containing filth and blood of the sacrificial animals.

A spokesman for the city government, however, told Dawn that the city government in close coordination with town administrations was working to remove offal and clean the city roads and streets especially after the rain.

He said that the city government’s complaint centre 1339 was functioning round-the-clock and all complaints were being rectified promptly.

Today’s forecast