KARACHI, May 27: People in the city braved yet another day of power breakdowns as the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) continued with its unannounced power load shedding in many localities in the city on Thursday.

People complained that the power utility had been switching off electricity supply at intermittent intervals creating hardships for them. An irate consumer in Garden East told Dawn that the KESC switched off power supply daily during the night in areas located at Edward street, Abdur Rehman street, Manakjee street and Flynn street.

He added that power supply was disrupted more than twice during the night compelling the residents to pass sleepless nights. He said area people continued to ring the KESC complaint centre but the phone was never attended to.

"We went in groups to the KESC complaint centre but their behaviour was humiliating. Power supply is restored whenever KESC wishes," he added. A female consumer from Nagan Chowrangi in North Karachi said that power went off at intervals almost daily, adding it was again switched off in the wee hours on Thursday.

An angry citizen from Federal B Area, Block-3, said that the power supply was cut off since 2.30pm and was not restored till 11pm. Long spells of unannounced load shedding in the hot and humid weather by the KESC had perturbed residents.

In Block-7 of FB Area, a consumer said that electricity supply was disrupted twice or thrice a day and even during nights. Another aggrieved KESC consumer in North Nazimabad, Block-L said that their locality was plunged into darkness in the wee hours on Thursday for at least an hour, adding power supply was again discontinued at twice at intervals during the day.

A perturbed resident in Block-20, FB Area said that power went off at intervals, alleging that KESC had resorted to power load shedding continuously. He said that KESC claimed that there were some localised faults in the area, however, he refuted the claim and said there were no such faults, but the KESC was intentionally switching on and off power.

A hostile citizen in Block-17, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, said the power supply was switched one and off many times a day, which had annoyed residents. He said it was the power utility's routine to shed load whenever it desired and that for long hours.

Another citizen in Block-4/A, Gulshan-i-Iqbal said residents were forced to pass a sleepless night, as the power supply was discontinued by KESC at around 1.30am on Thursday and restored by 5am. Children were crying and patients remained disturbed.

He said it was power load shedding and not localised faults as claimed by the KESC authorities. A resident in Orangi Town, Sector 11 1/2 said that load shedding was a routine in his area and people had been fed up with the power utility. The people often complained about frequent power failures but to no avail.

A resident in Block-14, Gulistan-i-Jauhar said that he reached home in the morning after night duty and as he went to bed, the electricity went off, which was restored after three hours.