KARACHI, April 27: Karachi Electric Supply Corporation has assured businessmen that with the commissioning of Hubco link, the power supply situation in the city will improve in two weeks.

Talking to members of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry here on Thursday, KESC chief executive Frank Scherschmidt said he would not make any excuses as it was the worst situation prevailing due to loss of 120mw of electricity. “The new management has suffered Rs40 million revenue loss,” he added.

KESC, he said, faced 40 per cent line losses due to technical and administrative reasons and this was the biggest problem.

He pointed out that six units of KESC were producing 210mw of electricity after due maintenance against not more than 120mw in the past, adding that the company had taken up plan to bring about all round improvement.

Mr Scherschmidt said 40 new grid stations had been ordered, a 1,000mw new power plant would start next year, three wind power plants with total production of 150mw were planned in Gharo, and new equipment would be put in place in next two years.

He said that KESC was putting up new meters and improving customer service centres. He said that there had been a dispute between the consumers and KESC about calibration of meters and the company was installing new GPRS meters of international standards.

About the change in KESC tariff, he said Nepra had refused the company’s request for an increase in tariff, says a press release of the FPCCI.

The KESC chief said the ‘kunda’ system was not a priority problem of the company, as there were only 200,000 kundas against 1.9 million subscribers.

FPCCI vice-president Akbar Abdullah said that load-shedding had become a perpetual and irritating problem which had affected the industrial growth.