KARACHI, April 16: The transmission and distribution network of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation gave way in many localities despite the fact that temperature came down to 34 degrees Centigrade on Friday.

Calling from Shadman Town in North Karachi, a resident said that his locality experienced a power breakdown at around 2am the previous night. "I called the regional complaint centre many times, but nobody answered the phone.

I then called the centralized complaint centre at 118, where an attendant told me that he was aware that a fault had occurred in North Karachi and work was on to repair it at the earliest.

"He, however, said he could not say when the power supply would be restored. Can't there be more coordination between the centralized complaint centre and the KESC operations departments, so that those lodging complaints could know exactly when their supply would be restored?" he wondered.

The caller said cable faults occurred all too often in his locality, which could be effectively checked if the KESC engineers worked hard. A resident of Liaquatabd said that his locality remained without electricity simply because of the negligence of KESC staff posted at the regional complaint centre.

The KESC officials told Dawn that the areas that had suffered long spells of power breakdown included Defence, North Karachi, Malir, Landhi, Liaquatabd, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Federal B Area, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Nazimabad, New Karachi, North Nazimabad and Korangi.