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KARACHI, June 19: Many areas in the city remained without electricity as Karachi Electric Supply Corporation consumers wondered why the power utility was not announcing that it was carrying out loadshedding.
A large number of people from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, North Nazimabad, North Karachi, Gulistan-i-Jauher, Clifton, Defence and Malir Cant phoned Dawn to say that telephone numbers of most complaint centres had been engaged for hours on end. Even ‘118’ had been found engaged most of the time, they added.
The few consumers who managed to get through to their complaint centres said they had been told by the KESC staff that the power utility had no alternative but to carry out limited loadshedding.
Kashif Saeed, calling from Clifton, Block 4, said: “A KESC official told me at my complaint centre that at KESC complaint centres telephones were left off the hook because the KESC staff did not wanted to tell subscribers they would not be able to remove faults on time.”
A resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 13D-2, said his locality had been without electricity since 1pm. The previous night, he added, he had had three power shutdowns.
Nabi Dad Khan, a former excise secretary in the government of Sindh, called Dawn to express anger over the fact that telephones at the complaint centre in his area, KDA scheme 1, had been incessantly engaged. He added that many air- conditioners had broken down in his locality.
Mr Khan said that it had rained merely for forty minutes in his area though the power shutdown had lasted more than three hours.
A very indignant Mohammad Ali Khan called from Defence Housing Society, Phase 4, saying that attendants at the complaint centre of his area were extremely rude. He added that one attendant had told him that the complaint centre had only one vehicle, though he had received more than 450 complaints.
A resident of Defence, Phase 2, also called to say his locality had been without power for quite some time.
A resident of Malir said he had braved a power shutdown throughout the previous night. The power shutdown was continuing.
Calling from Garden West, a resident told Dawn he had faced a power cut at 4pm.
A very angry resident of North Karachi, Sector 11-A, told Dawn houses in his street had been without power since the previous day. He added he had lodged complaints at his regional complaint centre, at 118 and at 134. Nothing, he said, had been done by the KESC to restore his power supply.
Calling from Gulistan-i-Jauher, Block 7, Major Nusrat Iqbal said his locality had been without electricity since 8am. When it was pointed out to him that the KESC was being run by the army, Major Nusrat said that the complaint centres were being run by the civilians. “KESC attendants at the complaint centre were unable to explain why we had such a long power breakdown.”
PRESS RELEASE: The KESC management has appreciated the support and cooperation of the electricity consumers of Federal B area, Nazimabad, North Nazimabad and Gulshan-i-Iqbal in times of power interruptions and payment of electricity bills, said a spokesman for the corporation.
He said the corporation was fully conscious of the problems faced by its consumers during power interruptions and deeply regretted such happenings. “KESC engineers are doing their utmost to keep the city electricity supply normal.”
He said that rainy season and summer months had been historically stressful for both the power supply corporation and the utility consumers. “The consumers overload the KESC distribution network, its power supply transformers and feeders in certain parts of the city by incorrect declarations of power consumption at the user- end.”
He said the power supply system was developed according to the load demand by the consumers, but if an electricity consumer applied for 1 kilowatt or 2 KW electrical load and used air- conditioners and other heavy electrical appliances, their area power supply feeders and transformers remained overloaded. Current interruptions in power supply and breakdowns especially in residential areas were due to overloading during the evening peak hours.
He said every year over 400 transformers were damaged or burnt due to overloading and excessive use of electricity by some of the area consumers, while the entire area suffered due to the breakdown and the KESC suffered a financial loss.
