RAWALPINDI: While the mercury touched 42 degrees Celsius on Saturday, the residents of Union Council No-2 Ratta Amral and Tauhidi Road spent the day without electricity as the transformer of the area tripped and the Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (Iesco) took over 21 hours to replace it.

The electricity supply to the area was suspended at 5pm on Friday and restored after 2pm on Saturday.

The residents lashed out at Iesco for not repairing the 200 KV transformer on time, forcing the people to bear the hot weather for 21 hours.

An Iesco official at Ratta Amral told Dawn that when they went to the Iesco store in Marrir Chowk the officials concerned refused to give them a new transformer late in the night.

Transformer tripping suspends supply to Ratta Amral, Tauhidi Road for 24 hours

“We got the new transformer after 10am when a senior official arrived in the office and approved the replacement of the transformer,” he said and added that the transportation of the transformer from Marrir Chowk to Ratta Amral took three hours due to the ongoing construction work on the Murree Road.

“It was a long night for us in the absence of electricity. The hot weather forced us to remain awake throughout the night,” said Mohammad Arshad, a resident of Ratta Amral.

He said the Iesco complaint office failed to address the problem, adding the company had no spare transformer and requested the Lahore office to dispatch one.

“We spent the whole night in the hope and fear: hope for the restoration of electricity and fear of thieves as they always strike when there is no light,” said Ali Shah, a resident of Tauhidi Road.

“We paid all the bills and in return got electricity for 12 hours a day. But this time, we had to bear almost 24 hours without electricity.”

Iesco cannot stop electricity loadshedding but at least it should repair the transformer on time, he added.

The residents also faced shortage of water. “We had to get water from Railway Colony,” said Syed Ambar Hussain.

He said ours was a strange country where in summer people are forced to live without electricity and in winter there is no gas. Despite repeated attempts, Iesco Rawalpindi superintending engineer Farrukh Sial could not be contacted for comments.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2014