LAHORE, May 28: Electricity and water supply to most parts of the provincial metropolis could not be restored on Tuesday.
Complaints about continuing power breakdown accompanied by water supply disruption were received from all parts of the city till Tuesday night.
People said that power and water supply had either not been restored or was restored for some time to be disrupted once again.
Lahorites’ ordeal began with Monday night’s rain and windstorm which, according to Lesco, resulted in disruption of electricity supplies from the national grid following the collapse of some supply towers. This rendered 200 of the 350 feeders supplying electricity to the city unserviceable. One third of the city remained without electricity on Monday night, a Lesco spokesman said.
Efforts to restore power supply were started on Tuesday morning and continued throughout the day. Lesco claimed to have made almost all the 200 affected feeders operational by the evening.
Water was not available in the homes of the people for drinking, cooking and bathing on Tuesday morning but was accumulated in every depression around the city. Those not accustomed to storing water for use in the event of disruption of its supply had to experience great difficulty in meeting their routine requirements.
The shortage had become acute in the areas where power supply could not be restored till Tuesday night.
The Managing Director of Water and Sanitation Agency of the Lahore Development Authority, Imran Raza Zaidi, said that water shortage had resulted because of power breakdown.
He said that all the 320 Wasa tubewells were in working order and had continued pumping water in the areas where power supply had not been disrupted.
He visited northern Lahore, Shadman, Multan Road, Allama Iqbal Town, Ichhra, Tajpura, Shah Jamal and Mian Outfall to review the storm water drainage position and all the water drained out except in a part of Shah Jamal.
He claimed that Wasa storm water drainage system had functioned satisfactorily.
The people found a sizable number of otherwise stoutlooking hoardings fallen on the roads falsifying Parks and Horticulture Authority claims that the same could withstand the intensity of storms.
Many billboards had been torn away from the supporting pillars. A number of trees had also been uprooted while the roads and streets were littered with branches and leaves of others.
Punjab Chief Secretary Imtiaz Masrur visited Garhi Shahu, Railway Station, Minar-i-Pakistan, Ravi Road, Shahdara Mor, Chauburji, Ferozpur Road, Multan Road, Wahdat Colony, Punjab University’s New Campus, Garden Town, Gulberg and GOR to access the losses caused by the thunder storm.
WAPDA’S CLAIM: Monday night’s wind storm cost Wapda Rs125 million in damaged equipment and transmission losses.
This was stated by Wapda’s Member Power Asghar Ali Randhawa on Tuesday. He was briefing newsmen about the fiscal cost of the 130 miles velocity typhoon.
Four towers of Multan-Lahore 500-KV of transmission line went down near Khanewal. Four poles of Bund Road-Kot Lakhpat 220-KV transmission line and three poles of Kot Lakhpat-Sarfrazabad also broke down disrupting power supply to two-thirds of the city.
A section of the three-part main power transformer — a Rs50 million commodity — has also been damaged but the extent of financial loss would only be clear once it is dismantled for repair.
“The tower losses runs into around Rs100 million and another Rs20 million loss came in shape of small transformers and other equipment. Though the wind storm travelled right up to Dera Ghazi Khan, but the main brunt was born by Lahore, where 95 per cent repair work had already been completed,” he claimed.
“The intangible part of the damage is that whole transmission is now being done on single contingency basis. In case of another storm during the next 15 days, time needed for the repair of collapsed transmission line, the whole system runs the risk of failure,” Mr Randhawa said.