KARACHI, June 8: The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation resorted to enforcing 90-minute loadshedding as it faced a shortfall of 144 megawatts in supply on Thursday.

It divided the city in four zones to apply loadshedding on a rotation basis.

Besides the short supply, a cable fault led to a prolonged breakdown in the areas along Maulana Deen Mohammad Wafai Road and Sarwar Shaheed Road. Residents of Defence and Jamshed Quarters areas also complained of prolonged and intermittent suspension in power supply.

The Unit No 5 at the Bin Qasim Power Station, which had stopped functioning due to some fault on Wednesday, was still undergoing repairs, sources in the KESC said on Thursday night.

Regarding the short supply, a spokesman for the power utility maintained that as against the requirement of 2,278 megawatts, the KESC had 2,134 megawatts available to it on Thursday evening.

The shortfall of 144 megawatts was being managed through loadshedding on a rotation basis, he added.

About the prolonged power failure affecting the Sidco Centre and the Karachi Press Club, he said that it was due to a cable fault which was being rectified.

According to the area people, power went off at about 1:30pm and had not been restored till the evening. Due to the cable fault that has occurred for the second time this week, residents of high-rise residential and commercial buildings on Sarwar Shaheed Road and Maulana Deen Mohammad Wafai Road were faced with severe hardship.

Saquib Ismail from Defence Housing Authority’s Phase VII said that his locality remained without power for four hours. The hide-and-seek of electricity in this area has become a routine, according to him.

Mr Ashhad from Federal B Area, Block 15, said that power supply was disrupted in his locality for two hours in the afternoon but the KESC did not cite any reason of the breakdown. He said that the time could not be regarded as ‘peak hours’ and, as such, the power suspension could not be taken as loadshedding.

Mr Shehryar from Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Block 16-A, said that his area experienced power suspension for two hours in the afternoon on Thursday. He said it had now become a daily routine.