KARACHI, Oct 11: Contrary to the assurance held out by the Federal Minister for Water and Power, Liaquat Jatoi, and the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation regarding an uninterrupted power supply to be restored from Monday (Oct 9), there has no respite so far from the frequent power failures on account of loadshedding and breakdown.

The breakdowns spanning two-three hours continued to take place during the three days, as usual, in most parts of the city, including Lyari, Baldia, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Landhi, Malir, Orangi, Korangi, F B Area and Saddar.

A KESC official, on the condition of anonymity, said that inadequate input for Wapda and other sources, besides weak transmission system, was responsible for the persisting crisis.

The KESC has no good news for Karachiites as Wapda has flatly refused to increase power supply to the KESC and, therefore, the crisis is likely to continue for long, he said.

At present, he pointed out, Wapda was providing 350 megawatts through the KDA-Jamshoro grid station and another 350 megawatts through the Hubco-Baldia link. Although it was told by the federal minister to increase the supply to the KESC by 25 megawatts, Wapda had refused to oblige the minister and the KESC, he added.

It may be mentioned here that while the Hubco-Baldia link was in developing stage, the Ministry of Water and Power had announced that an additional supply of 1,000 megawatts from this source to the KESC would be arranged.

The KESC official recalled that the federal government, before privatising the KESC, had taken the decision of this additional supply to Karachi. The decision had been taken in the light of President Pervez Musharraf's order on overcoming the power crisis in the city.

However, when the Hubco-Baldia link was commissioned, Wapda flatly refused to honour the commitment, and conveyed to the KESC management that there would be no increase in the supplies, not even of a single megawatt, the official claimed.

Karachi requires a total of 2,200 megawatts to meet the demand, 100 megawatts short of the overall supplies from other sources and the KESC’s own power generation capacity.

On October 6, the Federal Minister for Power, Liaquat Jatoi, chaired a high-level meeting which was also attended by representatives of Wapda and the KESC. It was announced at the meeting again that Wapda would provide an additional 25 megawatts through the Hubco-Baldia link from Monday (Oct 9). However, the decision is yet to be implemented.

Mr Jatoi had also announced that the Siemens, KESC’s technical partner, would bring in mobile transformers to help control overload in the power distribution system whereas the Sui Southern Gas Company would supply 15 million metric cubit feet gas to the Pakistan Steel Mill help it generate 20 megawatts additional power meant for supply to Karachi.—Online