KARACHI, May 19: The city sizzled on Thursday as the temperature rose to 42.7 degrees Centigrade and the transmission and distribution system of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation collapsed at various places in the city.

Sources in the KESC blamed Sunday’s temperature for the prolonged and intermittent power failures which plagued the lives of the Karachiites.

They said that the KESC centralized complaint centre had received complaints of power failure from Nazimabad, Gulshan-i- Iqbal, North Nazimabad, Malir, Federal B Area, North Karachi, Abyssinia Line, Manzoor Colony, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, New Karachi, Saddar, Model Colony, Rizvia Society and Lyari.

One very angry Naeem Sadiq called from Defence, Phase 6, Street 16, and said he wanted to protest the high-handedness of the KESC staff in the strongest possible words.

“The KESC staff do not solve the problems of taxpayers because they couldn’t care less,” he observed.

A resident of Abyssinia Line told Dawn that a large number of Kundas (illegal connections) caused power breakdowns in his area. He said he had no idea why the KESC did nothing to remove the illegal power connections and provide new connections.

Calling from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 4, a student of the University of Karachi said power breakdowns in her locality followed a sinister pattern. “At first, one of our three phases of electricity goes off. Then we remain without the phase for at least one day. We make frantic phone calls to our complaint centre. Before the resumption of the power supply, electricity goes off for at least four hours.”

She said that like most KU students she was having exams these days. “At night, we almost always lose our electricity. When we do have electricity, voltage keeps fluctuating, thus making it extremely difficult to study.”

A resident of North Nazimabad, Block A, said his locality, as well as Block L, had been without electricity for nearly three hours. He added that the staff at 118 had been unable to explain away the power closure. Their excuse, he added, had been too lousy to be believed.

A former employee of the KESC called Dawn to put forward a suggestion. He said it was time the KESC restarted the Public Lights Department — disbanded in the late eighties — which had been entrusted with the task of trimming trees and maintaining the streetlights. “When strong wind starts blowing, the trees begin to sway and disturb HT wires, resulting, at times, in tripping of feeders.”

He added that due to poor coordination between the KESC and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, trees remained untrimmed and posed a threat to the transmission and distribution system of the KESC.