PESHAWAR, July 30: Most of the consumers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa turn to private workshops for repair of the damaged electricity transformers of Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) in their areas with their own money, as the company officials often refuse to cooperate with them.

Many consumers told on Saturday that whenever contacted the Pesco officials categorically refused to repair the transformers citing different reasons. “The Pesco officials have been compelling the consumers to turn to the private workshops for repair of the transformers in their respective areas on self-help basis,” they said.

Transformers installed to supply power to consumers are the property of the Pesco and it is the company's responsibility to repair them whenever there is some fault, said a sub-division officer (SDO), who opted not to be named.

He said that when consumers complained to the Pesco officials concerning the damage of a transformer, the officials would first make all-out efforts to avoid the repair. However, if some consumers succeed to prevail upon the officials, they are told that the repair will take two to three weeks, he said.

Besides the hours-long power outages, the recurring faults and damage of transformers due to overload has also made the lives of consumers miserable in this hot summer. During the current summer, many consumers of the rural and city areas have staged protest demonstrations against the cold response of the Pesco to their complaints.

“We often collect contributions to repair the power transformer in our area,” a resident of Kohat Road locality told this correspondent.

He claimed that the Pesco officials had categorically told them not to waste time on requesting the company's officials for repair of the damaged transformer rather they should collect money and repair it in a private workshop, he further said.

“It is unbearable for us to remain two to three weeks without electricity in the scorching heat. Therefore, we prefer to collect money and get the transformer repaired in a private workshop,” he said.

Consumers in Gulozai village said that they got their transformer repaired from a private mechanic at Rs21,000. A mechanic in a private workshop told this correspondent that the Pesco officials also received their commission in the fund collected by consumers. He said that the officials used to refer consumers to those mechanics for repair of transformers who paid them commission of Rs Rs2,000, he said.

There are three kinds of copper wire used for making coil in transformer, he said. “We charge Rs20,000 for repair of one coil of 100-KV transformer by using high quality copper wire and there are three coils in a transformer. The amount becomes double and triple when two or three coils are to be repaired,” he said.

Since the Pesco has almost stopped repairing the damaged transformers, the business of private workshops is on the rise and currently there are over 50 workshops in Peshawar, the mechanic said.

When contacted, Pesco spokesman Shaukat Afzal said that the company had a reclamation workshop in Nowshera for repairing damaged power transformers. Minimum time required for repair of a transformer in the workshop is two weeks, he said.

Asked why the Pesco was not repairing transformers of most of the consumers, the spokesman said that the company didn't repair transformers of those areas where the consumers were involved in power theft and used to get direct connection from supply lines.