MULTAN, Aug 27: Unannounced loadshedding and power breakdowns continue to hit Multan and others districts of southern Punjab. People’s misery in this hot and humid weather compounds as they also face water shortage during major breakdowns.

The situation further aggravated with the discontinuation of power supply from two major transformers at the Piran Ghaib power station. It made the Multan Electric Supply Company to resort to one to two hours switch-off after every two hours.

According to Mepco reports, the electricity demand is increasing day by day. The overall consumption in the region, which was 1,536 megawatts in 2004-05, has risen to 2,087 megawatts.

Power crisis in Multan city is so intense that people can’t have a full night sleep. Localities of Chowk Shaheedan, Pul Sutriwat, Railway Road, Shaheen Market, Androon Bohar Gate, Clock Tower Chowk, Beroon Bohar Gate, Hazoori Bagh Road, Chungi 9, Shmasabad Colony, Officers Colony, Gulgasht Colony, Wahdat Colony, Sara-i-Wazir Khan, Rasheedabad, Naqshband Colony, Tariqabad, Noor Colony, Daulat Gate, Masoom Shah Road, Qadeerabad and Bawa Safra experienced frequent outages on night between Sunday and Monday.

An angry resident of Mohallah Chahwanwala said the duration of outages in 24 hours was almost eight hours although Mepco had given no schedule.

Khalid Mehmood from Keeri Jamandaan said they had been experiencing loadshedding for four hours at night and three to four hours in the day.

Saleem Ullah of Tariqabad Colony said on one hand the government was increasing power tariff, on the other it was unable to meet the gap between supply and demand.

“I am at a loss to understand why the government does not take immediate steps to increase power generation capacity,” he asked.

Yaseen Mir, resident engineer, Natural Gas Power Station, Piran Ghaib, said two transformers of the power station had gone out of order.

He said that a 63.5 KVA transformer stopped working on Saturday night at 9:40pm when a problem occurred at the Qasimpur Grid Station.

He said that the testing process had been started after replacing the damaged chamber (of the transformer).

He said that another 160 KVA transformer had become non-functional due to the effect of `wadding of yellow phase’.

He said a team of engineers was coming here from Lahore on Tuesday (today) that would finally decide whether this transformer could be repaired in Multan or it would have to be taken to Lahore.

He said the repair of the transformer could take three to four months. He said he had suggested higher authorities that two such kinds of transformers were available in Muzaffargrah where a new grid station was being built.

“One transformer can be brought here immediately to give some relief to people,” he said.