KARACHI, June 4: As hundreds of thousands of KESC consumers experienced yet another sleepless night due to massive power outages caused by a sudden closure of two generating units of the Bin Qasim power plant, enraged consumers attacked the utility’s offices in parts of the city to give vent to their anger.
On Tuesday people ransacked KESC offices in Keamari as they faced continued power outages. Some people were also injured in the stone-pelting incidents. A similar situation was also experienced at the KESC’s OC1 centre, near Noorani Kebab, on Sharah-i-Quaideen.
In view of the recent incidents in which some criminals were burnt alive by enraged community, KESC staff told Dawn they were feeling insecure. They apprehended that if the management continued its current policy of not investing in generation and transmission and kept on making money through selling KESC property, angry people might target KESC employees and installations. KESC employees maintained that the management, and those who had formed the consortium for its “dubious” privatisation, were the real culprits and demanded that the privatisation decision be reversed before they got away with the “family’s silver”.
There was hardly any part of the city which had not experienced more than nine hours of staggered power outages. As the utility experienced a shortage of more than 500MW, a housewife from the Seaview apartments complained that while power supply was maintained to the Bilawal House, people in the adjoining areas had been without electricity for more than three hours, at least thrice during the day.
The apathy of the government and the utility was disgusting, she said, accusing them of deliberately pushing the people of the metropolis towards extreme and violent measures.
There were reports of violent reaction from Pak Colony, Lyari, North Karachi, North Nazimabad, parts of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Orangi and Malir and Landhi areas.
As the mercury touched 33 degrees Celsius with 61 per cent humidity, Unit 2 of the Bin Qasim power plant remained shut for unspecified reasons. Insiders said it was a shutdown to cut fuel expenses, without any consideration of the contractual obligations and need of the people.
According to sources, the Bin Qasim plant was generating 915MW, leaving the utility short of over 500MW demand, which had crossed the 2,400MW level.
Meanwhile, traders and businessmen were also angry because despite claims of improvement by the utility’s new management, power supply had been dwindling day by day. According to Mahmood Hamid, the city chief of the small traders’ association, there had been no power supply to markets from Denso Hall to Boulton Market for the last three days but the KESC was not responding to their desperate calls.
Traders of Marriot Road, Quetta-Walli Market etc were the worst affected.He said the government’s claim that it could save up to 100MW through energy-saving early closure drive was not correct. The recurring power outages have exposed the claims of the utility, which was not providing electricity but was charging inflated bills.
He said that for the last three years the utility had maintained that it would bring in barge-mounted generating units to meet the gap in demand and supply but so far nothing had been done in this regard. He also demanded that the privatisation of the utility should be reversed.