KARACHI, June 20: Complaints of power disruptions from different parts of the city were received on Tuesday while the KESC maintained that there was no major electricity breakdown in the city.
People from different localities calling newspaper offices complained that the power failures had made their life miserable. They were critical of the power utility’s response to their complaints.
Criticising the working of power utility, they said that the power shutdowns had become a daily routine while the KESC had never published any schedule for loadshedding.
When the commercial establishments were forced to close down by 8pm why power supply to various areas remained suspended in the evenings, they remarked.
The complainants further said that owing to the power disruptions they faced water shortages as they could not operate their water pumps despite having plenty of water in the underground tanks of their houses.
A caller from Gulistan-i-Jauhar Block-17 said that her area remained without electricity twice on Tuesday. An hour-long disruption occurred at 9am and the power went out again at afternoon.
A resident of the Journalists Society in Gulshan-i-Iqbal said that there was no electricity in his area for over an hour from 8.30am to 9.30am. Similar complaint was received from Malir Halt area residents.
In Federal B` Area’s Block-10, power went off twice for two hours each, said area residents.
Residents of Darul Salam Housing Society and Korangi Crossing said that their areas had been without power supply for an hour from 4pm to 5pm.
Darakhshan Villas in DHA were facing regular power shutdowns every night at around 11pm. Another resident of Defence Phase-VI said that her area suffered power disruption from 10am to 1pm.
A resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal Block-14 said that her area was without power supply from 10.30am to 12.30pm and then again from 4.30pm to 5.30pm.
A caller from Sector 7/D-2, North Karachi complained that there was one-and-half hour long power shutdown in his locality. “There was no light in the area from 10am to 11.30am,” he said.
A resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal Block-16 said that his area experienced three spells of around 15 minutes each of power failures between 11am and 1pm.
Responding to Dawn queries, KESC spokesman said that there was no major power breakdown in the city on Tuesday. He said that no loadshedding was carried out, as the markets closure at 8pm saved around 90MWs, which was diverted to residential areas.
He said that there were over 9,000 PMTs installed in the city and usually one to two transformers tripped every day.
He said that KESC received between 3,000 and 4,000 complaints at its over 110 service centres in the city daily. He suggested that if the power supply was not restored in three hours after the complaint was registered, the complainant should come to the KESC head office on Abdullah Haroon Road to register a written complaint stating their complaint number so that action could be taken against the officials concerned.