KARACHI – Many areas of the city, including Clifton, Keamari and Shirin Jinnah Colony, were without electricity for over nine hours on Sunday.
Sources claimed that faults at a Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) grid station were the reason for the power outages.
Power supply was suspended to these areas at around 9:00 am. Residents of the affected areas were upset as Sunday is a weekly holiday.
“KESC should upgrade its transmission and distribution network while minting huge profits through over-billing,” Saeed Ahmed of Keamari told Pakistan Today.
Another resident of the area, Gul Haider, said that the power utility has failed to ensure regular supply of electricity to the city and is carrying out load shedding on Sundays even in winter when there is low demand for power. “We are afraid that this man-made power crisis would never end,” he added.
Sources said that the power company was carrying out long hours of load shedding on the pretext of cable faults. “Cable faults and maintenance works have become common excuses for the KESC management to justify unabated power outages,” they said.
They said that the management was being criminally negligent as it was deliberately running the company’s power plants at a lower capacity by switching off some units.
The KESC announced on Sunday that due to a connection of temporary diversion with the transmission line portion at the Clifton Grid Station, power supply to various areas – including Shirin Jinnah Colony; Clifton Block 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8; the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi; and Keamari – would be suspended from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
The notice also said that power supply to Frere Town; Civil Lines; 26th Street; DHA Phase I, II, IV, V and VI; P&T Colony; Clifton Block 5, 8 and 9; PNS Shifa; Kalapul Korangi Road; PER Area; Lucky Star Saddar; Green Street; Bohri Bazaar; Punjab Colony; Avari Tower; Delhi Colony; Kuwait Consulate; The Forum; and nearby areas would also be suspended from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm due to annual preventive maintenance of transformer No 3 at the Gizri Grid Station.
“Due to annual preventive maintenance of transformer No 1 at the KEPZ Grid Station, power supply to KEPZ, Labour Flats, PMTF Residential Colony, Bhains Colony, Jumma Goth, Barkat-e-Madina, Majeed Colony Sector 1 and 2, Labour Welfare Colony, and nearby areas would be suspended from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm,” the KESC announced.
The notice also said that due to installation of high-tension poles and PMTs and hardware fixing, power supply to Ahsanabad Site Phase 1 and nearby areas would be suspended from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
Sources said that the company was only trying to save fuel by switching off many power generating plants.
Besides these additional hours without electricity, the residents of Karachi are already putting up with the scheduled power load shedding of up to five hours.
