RAWALPINDI: After being battered by a freak windstorm, residents of the garrison city got no respite on Thursday either, as most parts of the city remained without electricity. But the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) blamed damage caused by inclement weather to electricity pylons for the outage.

This was the second consecutive day that parts of Rawalpindi have been without power. Even before the windstorm struck on Wednesday, most parts of the city had been without electricity for hours.

Most areas of the city, including the densely populated Westridge-III, Allahabad, Airport Road, Dhoke Hafiz, Pirwadhai, Dhoke Hassu, Misrial Road, Peshawar Road, Ratta Amral, Golra Mor, Naseerabad, Kohinoor Mills, Gulshan-i-Nayab and Satellite Town, experienced nine hours of loadshedding, with no power between 10am and 7pm.

The areas around Benazir Bhutto International Airport also remained without power for nearly 24 hours. This triggered an acute water shortage in most areas, as the pumps and tube wells installed by civic bodies were unable to run all day.

Most areas had no electricity between 10am and 7pm; Iesco official warns of more loadshedding on Friday morning

Mohammad Jamil, a resident of Allahabad, said his area had been without electricity from morning to night for the past two days. He claimed the Iesco complaint office had switched off their telephone numbers so they would not have to log citizens’ complaints.

“People have to fetch water from adjoining residential localities to do mundane chores. I couldn’t even charge my mobile phone,” he said.

Ajmal Akhter from Shah Khalid Colony said he had spent a sleepless night without electricity. Most people cannot afford to run generators, he said, adding that there was no word on how long the outages would last or when power was expected to be restored.

Local PML-N leaders, he said, were silent over the issue and PTI local leaders didn’t care, since they were not in touch with citizens and only came around when they needed votes.

Zulfikar Ahmed, who lives on Peshawar Road, said, “The government has failed to solve the electricity crisis and the opposition has never raised the problems of the common man in the legislatures or other forums.”

“Where is the Punjab chief minister, who started protesting against the loadshedding during the tenure of PPP-led federal government,” Former PPP Rawalpindi Chapter president Amir Fida Paracha asked.

He said that while the residents of Rawalpindi were condemned to remain without electricity in the boiling heat of June, the ruling family was enjoying the cool weather of London.

When contacted, Iesco Superintendent Engineer Mohammad Kaleem claimed that power had been restored to around 98pc of the garrison city by Thursday night.

He claimed that the thunderstorm had damaged electricity poles and pylons, but Iesco workers and officials had worked hard to restore power. He said that routinely, loadshedding was limited to six hours and the Iesco had not increased the timings.

When asked about extended outages around Peshawar Road, Pirwadhai and adjoining areas – where residents claimed that electricity returned at 8am on Thursday morning, only to go again an hour later – the Iesco official claimed that a fault had developed in main 132KV transmission line. He warned that residents of Rawalpindi will also face loadshedding on Friday morning, but was confident that power would be restored before Friday prayers.

Storm aftermath

A joint team from the Metro Bus Authority and Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), which has been formed to assess the damages to metro bus stations, found that 11 stations between Saddar and 9th Avenue had suffered more than 60pc damage.

“As many as 11 stations, including Saddar, Waris Khan, Shamsabad, 6th Road, Chaman, District Courts and Pims, were damaged by the windstorm. However, there was no damage to the structure of the elevated road,” RDA Chief Engineer Ather Hussain Bukhari told Dawn.

He said a complete report would be presented to the provincial government on Monday after obtaining the financial assessment of the damages, verified by the contractors.

Metro Bus Authority General Manager Operation Uzair Shah told Dawn that the bus service between Rawalpindi and Islamabad had not been stopped, despite the damage. He said that work to repair minor damage had started, but glass panes and other major items would be replaced after the government released funds for the purpose.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2016