KARACHI, June 17: The transmission and distribution system of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation once again started faltering as the people braved rising temperature on Monday

The temperature stood at 39 degrees Centigrade on Monday with 61 per cent humidity.

Enraged KESC consumers phoned Dawn to lodge their complaint against the power utility and protested the inability of the power utility to prevent power breakdowns from occurring and removing the power breakdowns promptly.

Gulshan-i-Iqbal residents told Dawn that their ordeal had not yet finished, as the power breakdown that had started on Saturday night continued on Monday punctuated by a brief intervals of power supply.

Calling from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Block 13D-2, a resident said that on Monday the power breakdown had occurred in the evening. He added that on Saturday his locality had faced the first power breakdown at 9.30pm. “The power supply was restored at eight on Sunday morning. The next power breakdown occurred at 1.30pm which lasted till 5pm. Three hours later, at 8pm, the power supply once again deserted us. The power supply was restored in the early hours of Monday.”

He said that his local complaint centre had told him that the power shutdown had been because of loadshedding. But the centralized complaint centre at 118 had told him that there was a cable fault in his area which would take at least three hours to be removed.

A resident of North Nazimabad, Block H, said it was beyond his comprehension why so many cable faults occurred at the same time in the city. “On Sunday the KESC told Gulshan-i-Iqbal consumers that because of a cable fault the power supply had been interrupted. In my area the power supply remained elusive because of the same cable fault. How long does the KESC take to rectify a cable fault?” he wondered.

Naveed Shahab, calling from Federal B. Area, Block 15, said his locality had been without electricity for the past two days. “I have made so many phone calls to the complaint centre and every time they say that they have sent a KESC vehicle to our area and our power supply will be restored in a little while. The KESC officials should be made to explain why they have failed to restore power supply to our area.”

Shahjehan Karim called to say that his locality, KDA Scheme 1, had been without electricity for the past six hours. “When I call the complaint centre they say that electricity will be restored in half an hour. Why do they lie when they know that they will not be able to do that in half an hour?”

A resident of Federal B. Area, Block 17, said that he had not been able to sleep the previous night because of the power breakdown which had been followed by fluctuations in voltage supply. “Because nobody wants to lose his home appliances to voltage fluctuation, that is why we keep them switched off. Imagine we do not use our refrigerator in this heat these days.”

A KESC official told Dawn that complaint centres were tasked to remove at least six types of faults: fluctuation/high voltage, one phase missing, meter burnt, fire case, service cable fault, and public lights complaints.

He explained that service cable faults were experienced due to the following reasons: excess load of the consumer, load of the consumer not equally distributed to all the three phases, and damage to the cable done during digging by some civic agency.

“In all types of service cable faults, the supply to the consumer is temporarily restored by providing overhead connection and then the complaint note is forwarded to the underground cable maintenance department.”