KESC irked by wire thefts

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The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has expressed great shock over the increasing incidents of unidentified miscreants stealing the extra high-tension conductor wires. In a statement issued on Friday, the power utility stated that the theft of wire caused the tripping of four major transmission circuits affecting up to six grid stations. The incident not only caused temporary outages at many linked localities but also inflicted heavy losses to the utility in terms of precious man-hours lost and excessive and undue wear and tear. The circuit tripping was caused by the theft of 135 feet of conductor wire at the Port Qasim-Pipri circuit, affecting the operations at 132kV Pipri West-Port Qasim circuit, 132kV Pipri West-KEPZ circuit, 132kV Pipri West-Korangi Town circuit and 132kV Landhi-Pipri West circuit. The KESC stated that the theft was shocking and demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the governmental security measures and called for an immediate action against “junk copper dealers, who are instrumental in the unending series of wire thefts”. On April 17, transformer wires were stolen from the Revenue Office substation 1,000 KVA local of Region II. On April 12, bus bar and leads were stolen from substation No 20 at Khayaban-e-Roomi in DHA. On April 9, low tension leads of 120mm neutral phase were found missing from Street No 1 in Clifton and on March 27, two leads and one lug were stolen from Defence View substation. The KESC claimed that despite continuous demands for security of electricity transmission and distribution cables among other equipments, the government has not taken adequate measures to stop the unending menace of theft.