KARACHI, April 4: Karachiites suffered hours-long power suspensions in different localities on Wednesday while the KESC claimed that the duration of loadshedding had been reduced to one hour, as Wapda had increased the power supply to 450 megawatts.
A resident of North Karachi said power supply to Block 11-C/3 suspended at 8am had not been restored till 7.30pm. He said KESC officials at the helpline 118 were repeatedly told about the situation, but the power supply was not restored.
Another complainant from North Karachi said power supply was suspended from 6am to 9am. He said it was again suspended at 2pm and 5.30pm. He said the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation had announced load shedding for 60 minutes or 90 minutes while the ground situation was different with three-hour-long power suspensions twice a day.
In Gulshan-i-Iqbal, power supply was suspended at 11am and restored at 1pm and it was again suspended at 3pm and restored at 5.30pm, said an area resident.
A complainant from Qasba Colony said people of the area suffered power cuts thrice a day. He said the power supply was suspended at 8am, 12noon and 4pm with intervals of two hours each. He said frequent power breakdowns without following the announced schedule of loadshedding had added to the miseries of citizens.
Complaints of power breakdowns were also received from Gulshan-i-Iqbal Block-5, Haroonabad, Raja Tanveer Colony and Pathan Colony. Complainants from Garden Edward Street and Manecji Street said the areas suffered frequent power failures and the officials at KESC customer service centre were not attending complaints on phone.
A shopkeeper from Pakistan Bazaar said power supply was repeatedly suspended and shopkeepers were left the only option to shutdown their business. He asked the KESC officials to avoid loadshedding so that they could continue their business activities.
TRADE LOSSES: Sindh Minister for Labour, Commerce, Industries and Transport Mohammad Adil Siddiqui has expressed his concern over the power crisis and said that it was causing huge losses to the industries and trade in the metropolis.
He said in addition to the problems faced by domestic consumes loadshedding was also hampering performance of industries and trade. He said loadshedding had affected 40 per cent of business activities causing a loss of billions of rupees daily.
The minister said despite contributing major chunk of revenue to the federation, Karachi was facing shortage of power. He urged Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to take notice of the situation and get the problem solved at the earliest.