KARACHI, April 27: People experienced intermittent and prolong power failures in their respective localities on the third consecutive day, Thursday, as the extra high-tension cable of 220 kv, carrying power from Bin Qasim Thermal Power Station, snapped once again on late Wednesday night.

Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad took notice of the grim situation of power supply and summoned a high-level meeting at the Governor's House on Friday, which would review the prevailing situation and suggest short-term relief measures, as well as, long-term remedies to get rid of loadshedding.

Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has also expressed his displeasure over the performance of KESC. In his telephonic conversation with the management of the power utility, he said that if loadshedding was unavoidable, it should be carried out under a proper plan so that citizens were faced with minimum hardship.

The pole-mounted high-tension line snapped at around 10:30pm in Ibrahim Hyderi area after KESC engineers and workers had fixed the broken wire in Bin Qasim area at around 10:00pm.

Earlier, the same wire had snapped at 10pm on Tuesday in an isolated area between the Bin Qasim Thermal Power Station and the adjacent KCR grid station. Back on Monday, one of the two circuits of 220 kv had tripped, suspending power supply to 14 grid stations.

A spokesman for the power utility termed it ‘sabotage activity’ and said unknown people had attempted to steal the copper wire but due to patrolling of the KESC guards, they could not take away the wire though they managed to cut it twice. He said: “We have intimated the federal and provincial authorities concerned and the law-enforcement agencies about the incidents of the attempted theft in Bin Qasim and Ibrahim Hyderi that had caused power failures in a vast area. Patrolling by guards has also been intensified.”

The 14 grids affected on Monday and Tuesday were again faced with power crisis on Thursday after the wire snapped again on Wednesday night. The spokesman said that the broken line would be fixed hopefully by 11pm and the power supply situation would get normalized.

The affected grid stations are Baldia, Clifton, Elander Road, Gizri, Lyari, Mauripur, North Karachi, Old Town, Orangi Town, Queens Road, Lalazaar, Site, Valika and West Wharf.

The spokesman said that the affected areas were being energised through alternative sources but a group-wise loadshedding was being carried out in these areas.

Loadshedding was not carried out in the areas connected with the remaining 40 grids, he claimed, adding that localized faults developed in a few areas were removed.

However, residents of the most affected areas of Clifton and Defence made phone calls to newspaper offices to complain of repeated power breakdowns in their localities. They said the breakdowns were not as frequent as they had been over the last several days.

Residents of North Nazimabad, Federal B Area, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Metroville III, PECHS, Khudadad Colony, Lines Area, Soldier Bazaar, Jamshed Quarters, PIB Colony and many other areas also made similar complaints.

A resident of PECHS Block-2, Jawed Sheikh, complained of extremely low voltage in his locality.

He said that the KESC office in his locality, on lodging the complaint, told him that it would take at least 12 days to rectify the fault.

He wondered if a large number of consumers in his locality could remain without electricity for 12 days.