KARACHI, June 28: While the power utility miserably failed to maintain normal supply on the seventh consecutive day, power riots broke out and a number of complaint centres of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation were attacked in various localities on Wednesday.

Long spells of power breakdowns in many areas forced people to spend sleepless nights, as mercury touched 37 Celsius with 66 per cent humidity. In some localities, people took to the streets and pelted the vehicles with stones, lit bonfires and blocked traffic while protesting over power failures of long durations.

The areas where people suffered night-long power breakdowns included Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Pak Colony, Liaquatabad, Nazimabad, Journalists Society, Metroville-III, Kaneez Fatima Society, Lasbella, Buffer Zone, Khuwaja Ajmer Nagri, North Karachi, Bahadurabad, PECHS, Defence, Federal B Area, North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, Soldier Bazaar, Korangi, Landhi, and Gulshan-i-Maymar.

As the KESC management failed to cope up with the mounting complaints, residents of Gulbahar and Patel Para took to the streets and blocked Lasbella Bridge restricting flow of vehicular traffic. They lit bonfire, broke the traffic lights and pelted the passing vehicles with stones. Due to the blockade, traffic jams were also witnessed in adjoining areas including Nishtar Road, Business Recorder, and Nawab Siddique Ali Khan Road.

Earlier, Gulistan-i-Jauhar residents in protest against continuous power failures attacked the KESC complaint centre near Haroon Royal City in Block-16/A. The protesters raised slogans against the new management of the power utility.

A prolonged power breakdown in the Kaneez Fatima Society behind Karachi University provoked area people to take to the streets. A number of complainants angry at the poor performance of the KESC ransacked another complaint centre. KESC staff on duty, however, survived the wrath of the people.

After experiencing hours-long breakdown, the dwellers of Pak Colony also gave vent to their anger and attacked yet another KESC complaint centre. They also blocked the thoroughfare, pelted vehicles with stones and broke the traffic lights. Traffic remained blocked for hours and the police reached the spot to bring the law and order situation under control. Due to the traffic interruption, motorists were trapped in the deluge of vehicles in the hot and sultry weather in the adjoining roads of Pak Colony.

However, KESC spokesman again attributed the crisis to the shortage of power supply from Wapda and independent power producers. He claimed that Wapda reduced the supply to 60MW and the IPPs reduced the supply to 40MW power. Due to the 100MW overall shortage, the KESC resorted to loadshedding on rotational basis across the city. Besides, the 132KV line conductor, between Civil Aviation and Landhi grids, that had burnt on Sunday was repaired on Wednesday evening. He said that the conductor would start working late in the night, after which stability would be ensured in the power supply system.

He said that the violent anger expressed by people had always caused delay in the repair work and the sufferers would be the consumers. He appealed to the people to be patient and allow KESC engineers and staff to carry out repairs so that faults could be rectified as soon as possible.

People were critical of the KESC response for not realising the gravity of the situation. The power failures had not only disturbed the daily life of people from all walks of life, but the situation had also affected factories, particularly the textile industry. People criticised the KESC for holding citizens responsible for delay in restoration of power supply.

Calling from Defence Phase-V, Ms Naheed Khan said that the residents of her locality were fed up with intermittent power breakdowns. “Where are the elected representatives now? When would they notice the situation and provide relief to the people of this city?” she remarked.

Shehzad, a resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal Block 13-A, said that the power went off at 8pm on Tuesday night and it was restored at 7am on Tuesday after 11 hours. The power supply was again suspended at 9am and it was restored at 1pm. It was again disrupted at 7:30pm and was not restored till filing of this report.Calling from Gulshan-i-Iqbal Block-3, Sadia Moiz said that the whole locality was being supplied only single phase for the past three days. She said that several complaints were made to the KESC staff but to no avail.

Several other consumers made telephone calls to the newspaper offices to lodge their complaints about intermittent or prolonged power failures besides power fluctuations in Buffer Zone, North Karachi, Bahadurabad, PECHS, Federal B Area, North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, Soldier Bazaar, Korangi and Landhi.