KARACHI, Oct 26: Power breakdowns, coupled with sharp fluctuations in voltage supply, occurred in many localities of the city on Tuesday.

A large number of city residents called on Tuesday to complain against what is described by the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation as their 'model complaint centre'. They said the prolonged power breakdown on Monday showed that KESC model complaint centres were not equipped enough to deal with a large number of complaints at a time.

A pre-dawn major power breakdown plunged most parts of the city into darkness on Monday. The KESC attributed the power breakdown to the tripping of grids caused by fog.

The localities that continued to experience power failures on Tuesday included Defence, North Nazimabad, Shah Faisal Colony, Malir, Model Colony, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Clifton, Federal B Area, Korangi, Landhi, Orangi Town, North Karachi, Bahadurabad, Old City area, Saddar, Liaquatabad, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, etc.

A resident of Federal B Area, Block 15, said that power breakdowns continued in his locality on Tuesday. "The KESC claimed today that it has overcome the power fault responsible for a prolonged power breakdown on Monday. But another prolonged power breakdown occurred in my locality today, proving that the KESC claims were hollow," he said.

A resident of North Karachi, Sector 11-A, told Dawn that a pole-mounted transformer started to give off sparks 10 minutes before Iftar on Tuesday. "I sent my son to the regional complaint centre to get some KESC officials to come here so that they could repair the pole-mounted transformer at once. The KESC officials told my son that they would not leave the localized complaint centre before Iftar. My son feared that the transformer might catch fire, but his pleas cut no ice with the KESC officials," he said.

He added that he was most disappointed with the irresponsible attitude of KESC officials.

A resident of PECHS on Tariq Road said his locality experienced a prolonged power breakdown on Tuesday afternoon. He added that the power supply was restored a little earlier than Iftar.

A spokesman for the KESC said that no major power breakdown occurred on Tuesday. He said that isolated power breakdowns occurred after major breakdowns. He said that currently the power demand in the city was less than 2,000 megawatts. He added that during the peak hour - at around 9pm -the power demand stood at around 1,800 megawatts.