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KARACHI, Sept 18: Karachi Electric Supply Corporation officials insist that the incident of wire pilferage that had deprived the Expo Centre in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, where a defence exhibition is in progress, of electric power was not an act of sabotage.
The KESC officials told Dawn on Wednesday that some miscreants had cut off an electricity wire between the KDA scheme 33 and Gulshan-i-Iqbal grid stations in the early hours of Tuesday. “The miscreants cut off the electricity wire at 3.27am. A mobile vigilance team spotted the wire pilferage incident almost at once and power supply was restored at 3.55am.”
They added that the power utility lost electricity wires worth Rs500,000 every day to thieves.
The KESC officials said that because of the attempt at wire pilferage — the miscreants had left the electricity wires behind — the Gulshan-i-Iqbal grid station, the Gulistan-i-Jauhar grid station, the Civic Centre grid station and the Liaquatabad grid station had been switched off.
They added that the region between Tower 7 and Tower 10 on Superhighway had always been a vulnerable spot as far as wire pilferage was concerned. This time the incident had occurred between Tower 8 and Tower 9.
The other spots where wire pilferage often occurred were the region between the Bin Qasim power plant and the national highway grid station, around Korangi grid station, and the area between the Kanupp grid station and the Baldia grid station.
The KESC officials said the power utility had also increased vigilance by seeking the help of the rangers and the police and having mobile power utility teams.
They stressed that the KESC had made elaborate arrangements for the Expo Centre exhibition. “Apart from a standby transmission and distribution team, a security control room has been set up in the centralized power house,” they explained.
BREAKDOWNS: As the KESC on Wednesday left no stone unturned to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the Expo Centre, many areas in the city remained without electricity more than once.
Calling from Federal B. Area, Block 14, a resident said that his locality had been without electricity from 1pm to 3pm. “When I called 118, telephone attendants said it was a shutdown. Then we lost our power supply around 7pm. It has yet to be restored.”
A resident of North Nazimabad, Block A, told Dawn that his locality had faced five power shutdowns the previous day.
“We heaved a sigh of relief when the power supply was restored at last, but our spirits were dampened because we had only single phase. All the three phases returned today at three o’clock,” he said.
