KARACHI, May 15: Power supply situation remained showed a little improvement on Wednesday and the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation said “all possible measures were being adopted to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the people of Karachi”.

In a press release, the KESC said that the power utility management was supervising the city power supply position round the clock and had succeeded in making the power distribution system stable.

People calling the Dawn office, however, had a different story to tell.

Suhail Ahmed, a resident of North Nazimabad, Block A, said his locality had had a power shutdown twice on Wednesday, each power cut lasting at least one and a half hours. “The centralized complaint centre ‘118’ is either perpetually engaged or unattended. Accordingly, I called the Governor House complaint number. When I complained to the telephone attendant about power failures, he said that we were being penalized for voting for President Gen Pervez Musharraf in the referendum.”

Ahsan Aziz, calling from Nazimabad, Block 4, said that out of the three phases of power supply, two phases in his area remained off all the time. “The third phase has a very low voltage which is bad for electronic equipment.”

The power utility’s press releases said the KESC managing director, Brig Tariq Saddozai, had directed divisional-in-charge of the three KESC distribution divisions for “resource mobilization” and assistance to each other in case the number of faults increased in a division. Engineers, motorized tower ladder vehicles and repair staff from less affected areas had been directed to move and rehabilitate electricity of the acutely affected area.

The press release added that during the last week “power rescue operations” had been carried out in the affected areas by the army and KESC engineers practically on a 24-hour basis.

“Multiple underground cable faults, grid transformers, PMTs, low-tension and high-tension wire snapping cases were changed and repaired under chief engineers supervision of the three KESC divisions, especially in Federal B Area, North Nazimabad, North Karachi, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Model Colony, Khokharapar, Malir, Korangi, PECHS, Defence Housing Authority.”