HYDERABAD: Moderate to heavy rains lashed most parts of Sindh late on Thursday night and intermittent spells of light to moderate showers continued till Friday evening bringing a pleasant change in the otherwise hot and humid weather conditions persisting for many weeks.

A fire that erupted at a 500kV grid station near the Jamshoro Thermal Power House on Indus Highway at about 5am Friday caused collapse of the electricity supply system leaving all 14 districts covered by the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) without power.

Heavy rain lashed the city for 30 minutes on Friday morning and turned the weather pleasant.

Light rain started at about midnight intensified by dawn with a heavy spell continuing for about 30 minutes without any break. Intermittent light and moderate spells continued to lash the city till Friday evening causing slime and slush on roads and inundating low-lying areas.

The rain paralysed civic life in the city and badly hit the Eid shopping.During the rain, a major fault in the 500kV grid station run by the National Transmission Dispatch Company (NTDC) caused collapse of system in the entire Hesco region.

A 450MVA transformer at the grid station located near the Jamshoro Thermal Power House on Indus Highway.

“The fire was brought under control after two-and-a-half hours. It erupted at 5am was caused during rain and lightning,” the NTDC resident engineer said. He said that the station was connected with the national grid.

The hours-long power breakdown in 14 districts created unrest among consumers and led to rioting in Hyderabad as it also badly affected water supply on a day when faithful observed Jumatul Wida.

In the Tilak Incline locality, a protest was still under way when last reports came in as angry people were forcing shopkeepers to pull down the shutters over absence of water and power. It is learnt that General Manager Grid Stations Operations (GSO) Abdul Qudoos is arriving Hyderabad on Saturday for an inquiry into the damage caused to the installation and the resultant massive breakdown.

According to a Hesco spokesman, there is a direct shortfall of 300 megawatts against the requirement because the damaged transformer had capacity of producing 450 megawatts though it was churning out 300 megawatts when the fire hit it.

“The NTDC management has assured Hesco that around 100 megawatts will be provided to it from the Kotri power house.

However, still there will be a shortfall of 200 megawatts,” said the spokesman.

He said that around 70 per cent system was normalised by Friday evening.

According to him, the fire caused suspension of power supply to 67 grid stations of Hesco and only four remained unaffected. “We are increasing the loadshedding hours in the city to meet the gap until the system is restored,” he said.

Mirpurkhas

Moderate to heavy spells of rain hit Mirpurkhas and other towns of the district on late Thursday night were continuing till late on Friday evening. Roads and streets in the low-lying areas were inundated.

People hit by a weeks-long heatwave heaved a sigh of relief while growers facing a shortage of water in the tail-end areas expressed their joy over the first rainfall of the season.

The growers believe that the rain would save their cotton, chillies and sugarcane crops were threatened by the otherwise dry season.The areas that received rain on Friday included Mirwah Gorchani, Digri, Tando Jan Mohammad, Jhuddo, Naokot, Kot Ghulam Mohammad, Sindhri, Hingorno, Phuladyyoon and Jhilori.

Meanwhile, Mirpurkhas Commissioner Sajid Jamal Abro has asked all DCs and relevant officials to put their staff on alert in view of the onset of the monsoon.

Leaves of all essential staff have been cancelled.

Badin

Parts of Badin district received light showers late on Thursday night which continued on Friday.

The entire district, however, remained without power for more than 10 hours on Friday. Supply to some areas was restored in the evening and work to rectify the fault was under way till the filing of the report.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2014