As the second spell of monsoon rains hit the city on Wednesday, power supply to many areas of the city remained suspended leaving the residents to brave hours longs power outages. The KE claimed that power supply to Karachi remained largely stable on second day of the monsoon rain in city. Some 140 feeders tripped during the rain on Wednesday of which 20 were immediately restored.
However, many areas of the city including Garden East, Garden West, Lasbella, Patel Para and others remained without power for over 26 hours till filing of this report, as power supply to the area, which suspended with the Tuesday's showers, could not be restored even on Tuesday by the power utility. The moderate monsoon rain spell exposed the vulnerability of the K-Electric's transmission and distribution system as it could not withstand a moderate spells of monsoon rains. It also exposed the K-Electric's management claims of investment of billion of rupees in transmission and distribution system to upgrade and overhaul it.
Citizens complained of low voltages in their area, accusing the KE of not taking concrete measures to ensure smooth supply of electricity in rainy season. "KE has not invested on maintenance of its infrastructure that led to major power breakdown in the city with a moderate spell of rain," Fahad Mughal, a KE consumer, said. Another consumer Yasin Siddiq complained of inflated power bills, saying that despite receiving inflated bill from the power utility, he braved eight to nine hours daily of load-shedding.
As the third and last 'Ashra' of the holy month continues thousands of faithful sit in mosques for "Aitikaf" but these mosques also faced load-shedding even during Iftar time. Citizens urged Sindh government to take notice of prolonged load-shedding in order to facilitate the consumers.
The spokesperson of KE said that KE teams were on ground and working diligently to restore supply. Work on around 60 feeders remained with standing water being a huge challenge faced by the KE teams in restoration efforts that were ongoing in some pockets of Orangi, Liaquatabad, F.B. Area, North Karachi and Shah Faisal Colony at the time of filing this story.
K-Electric teams confirmed that in some areas power was cut down due to precautionary measures because of kunda infestation and system safety. These measures were for ensuring that the system remained intact and there was no major outage or breakdown. The chief minister also took notice of prolonged power failure in the city that caused serious problems in the city. "I had held a meeting with KE authorities and they had informed to have upgraded their transmission and distribution system. If their system was upgraded then how this prolonged power failure occurred during a first shower in the city," he questioned and directed Secretary Energy to talk to KE and urge them to keep their system maintained.
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