Another breakdown plunges large part of Karachi into darkness

Published July 9, 2015
KE spokesman says the tripping of production units in the national grid led to the breakdown. —AFP
KE spokesman says the tripping of production units in the national grid led to the breakdown. —AFP

KARACHI: A large number of localities in the metropolis faced a blackout yet again early Thursday as a technical fault developed in the national power grid, DawnNews quoted a spokesman for the city's major power distributor K-Electric (KE) as saying. This is the second power breakdown in the city in a span of three days.

The spokesman said the tripping of production units in the national grid led to the breakdown, which plunged a large section of the city into darkness, DawnNews reported.

The outage is affecting a large number of areas in the city, including Liaqatabad, Malir, North Karachi, Azizabad, Saddar, Nazimabad, North Nazimabad, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Federal B Area and Garden.

After around two hours since the filing of this report, a KE representative told Dawn.com via telephone that power in several areas of the city was restored while efforts were being made to restore electricity in the areas which still faced the blackout. An exact time for the complete restoration of power could not be quoted, the representative said.

Earlier on Tuesday night, a large part of Pakistan's largest city plunged into darkness when units of Bin Qasim Power Plant got tripped because of some ‘technical reasons’, disrupting the lives of millions of people.

Read: Large part of Karachi plunges into darkness

The breakdown struck several neighbourhoods, particularly in the city’s south, east and central districts, enveloping homes and markets in darkness.

As KE teams continued restoration work following the breakdown, all four units of the Jamshoro Thermal Power House stopped functioning early Wednesday, leading to a blackout in several other areas of Sindh, including Sukkur and Hyderabad, and Balochistan.

Electricity started to be restored in the city early morning, however, some areas remained without power until as long as noon.

People in various localities faced hardship because of the widespread breakdown that caught them unawares, particularly at a time when Ramazan’s final days have begun and preparations for Eid are round the corner.

Karachi’s electricity distribution system is a complex, and delicate, web and a major fault at one section often leads to chain reactions and breakdowns of power generation and transmission.

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