QUETTA: Powers supply to Quetta and other parts of Balochistan was suspended after two pylons of a 220kV transmission line were uprooted between Quetta and Mach by heavy rain and hailstorm that lashed the provincial capital and other areas of Balochistan on Monday.

“We are facing a storage of 300MW after the fall of the pylons,” a spokesman for the Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco) said on Tuesday.

To overcome the shortfall of 300MW, he said, additional loadshedding had to be carried out in Quetta and other areas of the province. “Quetta will face one-hour additional loadshedding and 10 other districts of the province will experience two-hour additional loadshedding.”

The affected districts include Mastung, Kalat, Mach, Kharan, Nushki, Qila Abdullah, Chagai, Pishin and Chaman.

Quetta city has already been facing eight-hour loadshedding on a daily basis, which extends to 12 hours in the rural areas of the district. In other districts of the province, loadshedding is carried out for 12 to 18 hours.

The spokesman said the two pylons had been destroyed and needed to be replaced. Installation of new power pylons will start on Wednesday and it will take at least a week to restore power supply from the 220kV transmission line to Quetta and other affected areas.

On Monday, heavy rain and hailstorm wreaked havoc in Quetta as power supply was suspended and normal life came to a standstill. Several huge trees were uprooted. Telephone and internet services were also disrupted in different areas of the city.

Heavy rain started lashing Quetta and its surrounding areas at around 2.30pm and continued for two hours.

All roads and streets of the city were flooded by rainwater as the sewerage system failed to drain out rainwater because drains have been choked by garbage accumulated in them.

This has exposed the poor performance of the Quetta Metropolitan Corporation (QMC) which claimed earlier that it had cleared the drains by disposing of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of garbage at a cost of Rs50 million.

Rainwater coming from mountains surrounding the city contributed to urban flooding, causing immense difficulties to people. A large number of cars and motorcycles were stuck in the water flowing on the roads instead of drains and nullahs constructed last year at a cost of around Rs4 billion.

Rainwater gushed into the premises of the civil hospital and shops and houses, particularly in low-lying localities.

Sanitary staff and other officials of the QMC made no effort to open blocked drains and pump out water from the roads.

According to reports, at least over a dozen mud houses collapsed in the areas of Sariab, Nawan Killi, Ghousabad and Jan Mohammad Road, injuring 10 people who were taken to the civil hospital.

A man and a child drowned in the city’s main open drain. The body of the man was recovered from the Sur Pul area and taken to hospital.

According to unconfirmed reports, three other people were also swept away by the swelling waters of the drain.

Reports said that Mastung, Kalat and some other parts of central and northern Balochistan also received rains.

Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri, accompanied by Home Minister Mir Sarfarz Ahmed Bugti and Commissioner of Quetta Kambar Dashti, visited the affected areas of the city late Monday evening.

He directed authorities concerned to immediately make arrangements for pumping out rainwater accumulated on roads and in low-lying areas.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2016