RAWALPINDI: Frequent power cuts in the winter have disturbed daily life of the residents in Rawalpindi and Islamabad with the duration of the outages increasing for the last two days.

The residents of Shah Khalid Colony, Media Town, Westridge, Chaudhry Bostan Khan Road, Chaklala Scheme-III, Pirwadhai, Dhoke Hassu, Dhoke Ratta and other areas are grappling with frequent outages these days.

“My wife has to wash the clothes by hands due to absence of power in the biting cold,” said Mohammad Akram, a resident of Dhoke Ratta.

Nazir Ahmed, a resident of Media Town, added that it was difficult to fill the overhead water tank in the morning due to frequent cuts. He said household chores could not be completed without water.

Official says due to closure of canals for annual desilting electricity production has reduced

“One thing is good; during the frequent power cuts compressors being illegally used by some people remain off and we get gas in full pressure,” he said.

The areas are experiencing outages mostly from 9am to 1pm and then in the evening when people have to wait for several hours to complete their daily chores,” said Nisar Ahmed, a resident of Nayyar Colony.

Khalid Mehmood, of Shah Khalid Colony, said the frequent outages created water shortage and damaged household electric appliances.

“I have to run to the ground portion of my house to switch off the refrigerator to save it from frequent outages,” he said.

Abdul Rasheed, an electric appliance repair workshop owner, said they had to stop work due to power cuts. “People come to us for repair of their appliances but we cannot work without electricity and our business is going from bad to worse,” he said.

A senior official of the power division said the main reason for the increase in the duration of power outages was less production of electricity due to closure of canals for annual desilting which will continue till January 31.

“Coal and LNG-run production units are also not running in full capacity,” he said.

Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) Chief Executive Officer Dr Amjad admitted that the frequent power cuts had increased in the last few days, but added that it was being managed through the national grid.

He said Iesco was gathering information about the increase in duration of loadshedding. However, he said the situation was likely to improve in coming days.

“Iesco tries to manage things but sometimes the main girds are switched off by Wapda.” He said in some areas technical issues occurred and Iesco tried to fix them.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2024