LAHORE, June 29: The control and power cables in Mangla Dam got burnt early on Monday morning, putting it off the national grid and widening the power deficit by 1,100MW.

Up to 18-hour outages were reported from towns and cities across the country, triggering violent protests in Lahore, Gujranwala, Shuja Abad and Mianwali.

Although Pepco claimed to have moved “all resources at its disposal”, it conceded that it would take quite some time to bring the situation back to normal.

Experts believe that it “will take at least a week to lay new cables. There are one double-circuit 132KV and three double-circuit 120KV lines”.

Pepco put the total power deficit at around 3,600MW, Mangla Dam included. But independent power planners said the peak time deficit had soared beyond 5,000MW.

The managing director of Pepco, Tahir Basharat Cheema, said that although there was a one-kilometre-long tunnel just for cables, the company had decided to lay them overhead to save time.

“All Pepco and Wapda resources have been mobilised and work is in full swing.

“I was there in the morning and will be monitoring the work …But it is a time-consuming job and will take quite some time.

“All 10 generating units are safe,” he said.

To make matters worse, a scorching heat wave is continuing to sear the country.

“We have lost all sense of the demand and supply situation. The entire system is overstretched … without any contingency.

“Independent power producers are producing 5,100MW and Pepco’s own thermal units are generating 3,000MW, but the drop in Mangla (output) has been lethal as the demand has surged beyond 16,000MW because of the heat. The situation is worst imaginable but it is manageable. But, this episode has panicked eryone,” he said.

Hydroelectric generation, which was 5,600MW last year, had been hovering around 4,800MW just before the Mangla failure.

After power production at the Mangla Dam stopped, it dropped to 3,700MW on Monday.

APP adds: Tubewells in Peshawar have shut down because of lengthy power outages, creating an acute shortage of drinking water.

The NWFP government has ordered all departments concerned to take remedial steps and accelerate work on the supply of clean water to the city from Warsak Dam.

The decision was taken at a meeting, chaired by the province’s Senior Minister and Parliamentary Leader of the ANP, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, on Monday.

The minister warned the Peshawar Electricity Supply Company to ”mend its ways” and said that if it deemed the provincial government responsible for the payment of bills, Pesco had no right or justification to disconnect power supply to the tube wells.