KARACHI, June 9: Many areas of the city experienced power breakdowns of long duration and the affected people kept trying to reach some KESC officials to ascertain the reason and seek help.

The worst-hit among the sufferers appeared to be the residents of Gulistan-i-Jauhar Block-12 who said that power went off for four hours in the morning. Soon after the power supply was restored, intermittent breakdowns continued for the rest of the day. An area resident said that he succeeded in talking to a KESC official, who maintained that the problem was due to both loadshedding and localised faults.

He, however, could not explain how many faults had developed in the single cable supplying power to his locality. Nor would he know how and when the supply could be normalised, the consumer said.

A caller informed Dawn that power supply to Block-12 had been normalised at 9pm, after some 14 hours of intermittent suspension. He was still sceptical about the continued power supply during the night.

A senior KESC official said that the area might have been affected by excessive load on the local transformer, besides the localised cable fault.

Area people complained of voltage fluctuation, claiming that their electrical appliances, including refrigerators and air-conditioners, had sustained damage due to the problem. Many others complained that they did not get adequate water due to the prolonged breakdowns and loadshedding. They maintained that they could not fill their overhead water tanks as either there was no electricity or there was voltage fluctuation.

An angry resident of the locality remarked that it was like a crisis situation that had badly disturbed the normal life of his family, as well as that of his neighbours living in high-rise buildings. He said one could well realise the agony of a life without water and power.

Complaints of power breakdowns were also received from Federal B` Area’s blocks 2, 3, 5 and 15.

Residents of Gulshan-i-Iqbal’s Block 13/D/III had also similar complaints. They said that power was cut early Friday morning and restored after an hour only for 10 minutes. This continued for the whole day, they added.

They stated that there was very low voltage during the previous night with fans and other appliances working at dead speed. They feared that if such a situation persisted, it might damage their electrical appliances.