KARACHI, Feb 7: Power breakdowns plagued the lives of the consumers of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation on Friday despite the fact that a fully-fledged summer is still away.

Calling from different localities KESC consumers told Dawn that they had experienced prolonged power breakdowns on Friday as the centralized complaint centre — better known as 118 — kept them in the dark about the nature of the shutdowns and when they would be over.

A resident of Defence, Phase 6, said the previous night they had experienced a power shutdown from 8pm to 2am. “We tried to contact the complaint centre of our area, but telephones at the complaint centre were either engaged all the time or were not answered,” she said.

Another resident of the same locality said they had been facing a water shortage because of prolonged power shutdowns. “Whenever there is a power cut, we cannot use our water motor. This naturally creates a water shortage.”

Karim Khan, calling from KDA Scheme 1, said his locality had experienced a power breakdown in the morning. “I first called 118 at around 10.30am. The telephone attendant said she was unaware about the real nature of the power breakdown. She gave me the complaint number AP05. At around 2.30pm I again called 118. On learning that the power supply had not been restored, she said that she would inform the power centre once again. I then called my localized complaint centre after finding their telephone numbers written on the back of my power bill. The localized complaint centre told me that the power supply had been switched off because of some maintenance work. The telephone attendant at the localized complaint centre said that 118 should not have given me the complaint number because it was a maintenance shutdown. He conceded that the there was a lack of communication between the localized complaint centre and the centralized complaint centre.”

KESC sources said that power breakdowns had occurred in Federal B Area, North Nazimabad, Sharafabad, Dhoraji, Gulshan-i- Iqbal, New Karachi, Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Korangi.

Faisal Aziz, a resident of North Karachi, Sector 11-B, told Dawn that his locality had faced the first power breakdown at 9.30pm the previous night. “The power supply was restored at eight on Sunday morning. The next power breakdown occurred at 1.30pm which lasted till 5pm. Three hours later, at 8pm, the power supply once deserted us.”