ISLAMABAD: Unannounced load shedding has increased in Islamabad the last couple of days, though the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) maintains that urban areas are being subjected to six hours of load shedding and rural areas to eight.

Meanwhile in Rawalpindi, electricity supply remained suspended for five to seven hours in most localities on Wednesday which Iesco officials said was due to up-gradation work on the main lines and because of the construction of roads.

Load shedding has increased in the federal capital with the arrival of summer. A resident of I-10 Maqbool Ahmed told Dawn that over the last six months, load shedding was conducted according to a schedule according to which people would plan their days.

“Over the last few days, there seems to be no schedule for load shedding with power being supplied for just 15 minutes at times,” he said.

The same pattern was witnessed in E-11 where a resident, Mohammad Naeem said: “All our plans for the day are disturbed because of unannounced load shedding. We used to make sure to run the water pump before the power went out, but now we don’t know when the electricity supply is going to be stopped.”

When asked, Iesco General Manager Technical Basit Zaman said that the federal capital’s requirement for electricity was 1,666 MW when the available load was 1,261 MW.

“The gap between the demand and supply of electricity can be bridged by observing six hours of load shedding in urban and eight hours in rural areas. We are not conducting unannounced load shedding though and the interruptions are because of some technical faults,” he said.

Meanwhile in Rawalpindi, electricity supply was suspended across the city for five to seven hours. Power supply was cut off between 10am to 5pm in Westridge, Peshawar Road, Pirwadhai, Dhoke Ratta, Gulistan Colony, Dhoke Kala Khan and the localities along the Islamabad Expressway. After 5:00 pm though, electricity load shedding was observed according to the schedule.

Iesco Superintendent Engineer Mohammad Kaleem told Dawn that construction work on Rewat Road and the up-gradation of a 132 KV main line were the reasons for the long interruption in power supply.

He added that the power company wanted to complete work on the main line before the start of Ramazan and that the company had to fix lamp posts on Rewat Road as well which is why electricity supply was suspended.

Residents were faced with problems, including a shortage of water, because of the interruption in power supply. The Water and Sanitation Agency’s tubewells in Rawalpindi and Chaklala Cantonment Boards also stopped working.

“Our UPS also ran out of charge and the water supply was suspended as well,” said Mohammad Naman, a resident of Westridge II.

Even though there are always problems with power supplies in the summers, the government does not make arrangements or draft policies for addressing the problem, he said.

Instead of addressing the shortage of electricity in the summers and that of gas in the winters, politicians are busy transferring money into off-shore accounts, said a resident of Peshawar Road, Mohammad Idrees.

“I spent the day without a fan, cold water or a mobile phone. The supply of water was also suspended,” said Ali Asghar, a local of Tench Bhatta.

He said that household chores could also not be carried out and that he tried registering a complaint but the complaint office was not receiving calls.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2016