KARACHI, Aug 5: The staff of a city government contractor, while planting date trees, damaged the KESC’s 132kv extra high tension line at Sharea Faisal on Tuesday, causing an estimated loss of Rs2.5 million, said a KESC spokesman.

He alleged the city government excavators damaged the KESC’s cables at two points on Sharea Faisal, as a result of which two grid stations — Baloch Colony Grid Station and Lines Area Grid Station — had become dead affecting power supply at 11:14am which was normalized through back-feeding from another line at 1:35pm.

KESC’s officer in-charge (transmission) Lt-Col Sardar Khan and Chief Engineer Shabbir Khattak rushed to the spot so that the city government staff could be stopped from further damage.

The city government staff responsible for planting the tress did not bother to notice the yellow warning strips deep down in the ground as well as cemented tiles covering and protecting the cables. Even the KESC warning stones pointing out the route of cable were not noticed, the spokesman added.

The KESC will now have to repair the damaged cable for which foreign experts will be required. The work for fixing the damage in 132kv lines might take two weeks after the start.

For the time being, the KESC has normalized the Baloch Colony and Lines Area grids through back-feeding from alternative line. However, the KESC’s grids namely Baloch Colony, Jacob Lines and Garden East, have now become vulnerable till the damage is repaired because of the availability of only one transmission line.

The KESC has asked the city government staff to be careful in future and inform the KESC in advance before making any excavation in any area which may cause damage to underground electricity lines.—PPI