KARACHI, Sept 7: Power riots broke out in Gulbahar on Thursday night as area people took to streets to express their anger over prolonged power failures in their locality.
Angry residents pelted vehicles with stones and lit bonfires on Nawab Siddiqui Ali Khan Road running between Lasbella bridge and Nazimabad Chowrangi.
As protesters resorted to violence, the road remained blocked for traffic, which led to a traffic chaos on both the ends of the road.
They claimed that the power went off since morning and the KESC officials did not inform them about the timeframe for restoration of power supply.
As road blockade continued for hours, but the police and the traffic police disappeared from scene. Then finally the area youths voluntarily came to regulate the traffic.
The KESC claimed that there was no major breakdown or fault in the system. Briefing newsmen at the KESC head office on Abdullah Haroon Road, the principal information officer Sultan Hasan said the power utility faced the 89 Megawatts shortfall in power generation and had to resort to load shedding from 2pm.
He said one of the six power generating units in Bin Qasim Power Station had been shut for 74 days for maintenance. Besides, the change in weather condition increased the power consumption creating a gap in the demand and supply during peak hours that compelled the power utility to resort to load-shedding.Due to system constraints, the loadshedding was carried out from 9:45am in Mauripur, West Wharf, North Karachi, Orangi and Baldia grid stations. All those localities connected to these grids remained affected.
People in various localities said they remained without power for hours. A consumer from Jamshed Quarters said intermittent power failures had become routine.
A resident of Malir Cantonment said power failures in his locality for an hour or two were routine. An irate consumer from Orangi’s Sector 8 said frequent power breakdowns and low voltage were the perpetual problem of the area.
Meanwhile, the KESC has started work on installation of a new power plant on the premises of the Korangi Thermal Power Station.
“The new plant would start working in the next summer and another plant would be needed within the next three years”, Frank Scherschmidt, KESC’s chief executive officer, briefed newsmen during a visit to the Korangi Power Thermal Station.
Following the installation of the first combined circle power plant in Karachi, 488 MW power would be added to the generation capacity of the KESC in the next summer.