KARACHI, 26 July 2006 — A major power breakdown plunged half of Karachi into darkness since midnight. Several areas of the metropolis suffered long hours of power outage as supply in some areas of the city was restored after three hours. But many localities were still without electricity.
The areas affected included North Nazimabad, North Karachi, New Karachi, Federal B Area, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Buffer Zone, Saddar, Gulbahar, SITE, Baldia Town, Keamari, Lyari, Korangi, Orangi and Gulistan-e-Jauhar suffered long hours of power outage.
The power crisis was triggered by the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) carrying out rolling load shedding, about four to five times, in different areas on Monday. This caused power breakdowns after every four to six hours. Many areas, which already experienced three or four power outages during the day, plunged into darkness when the power supply was nonexistent for hours in the night.
Due to these outages, classes conducted by the Karachi University’s evening program was affected. Complaints of intermittent power cuts from different areas were constantly received. A resident of Federal B Area Block 15 said that his locality experienced seven breakdowns in the day and added that the power supply was disrupted for a total duration of six hours.
Professor Abdul Mateen from North Karachi Sector 11-A said that power supply in his area went at about 3:00 p.m. and restored only after three hours. But there was no power again from 8:00 p.m. till late in the night.
A consumer from Clifton Block 5 said that the power went off for five hours in the morning.
It was again suspended for two hours in the afternoon and then again at night. A housewife from Defense Phase V said that the unannounced load shedding occurred after every hour. Another consumer from Phase VI in Defense said thrice power was cut off for two hours.
KESC officials, explaining the need for load shedding, said that the utility was facing an acute shortage of 250 to 300 megawatts, which could only be met by carrying out load-shedding in the city.
A power generating unit of Bin Qasim Thermal Power Station was also out of order while normal supply from the recently-commissioned Hubco link to the KESC has not resumed.
The KESC Chief Executive Frank Scherschmidt told media in a briefing the utility resorted to the rolling load shedding of an hour across the city and the each area again faced outages every three to four hours.
Residents of the affected areas, meanwhile, have also complained about the total lack of response from KESC complaint centers during the outages.
