KARACHI: Various city neighborhoods including posh DHA and Clifton areas continued to face prolonged power outages on Friday, 24 hours after the rains have stopped in the metropolis. Keamari, Lyari, PECHS, Several parts of Defence Housing Authority, Clifton, Bahadurabad, Surjani Town, Landhi, Gulshan-e-Hadeed etc continued to face outages due to what KE said standing water which has also entered into substations and other sensitive electrical installations.

A consumer alleged that K-Electric has come up with a new way of doing load shedding which "feeder shutdown" under the guise of precautionary measures during rains. On Thursday, KE had suspend power supply to over 900 feeders on account of emergency complaints and 'safety hazards' created due to water entering homes.

"Our area is experiencing power outages since morning, while the KE complaint centers are not responsive." said Hamza, a resident of PECHS Block 6. KE teams have been working to swiftly restore power across Karachi despite on-ground challenges posed by severe urban flooding.

KE spokesperson said the power restoration work was initiated immediately when the rain stopped and regular power supply had resumed to over 80% of the city by mid-afternoon including Gulshan e Iqbal, Saddar, Garden, Nomaish, Punjab Colony, Korangi, Nazimabad, Federal B Area with the support provided by city administration for drainage and dewatering.

In order to expedite complaint resolution in these areas, KE has ensured additional resources including equipment, vehicles and teams; at the same time the power utility is in coordination with district and city administration to ensure timely drainage of accumulated rainwater. KE's operational teams and vehicles have also been affected due to the city-wide situation.

Fuel availability and accessibility challenges due water logging made it difficult for field teams to reach working locations, while in some cases, KE vehicles were also damaged or stranded in deep water.

Areas where power was restored by Friday afternoon include West Wharf, Fisheries, SITE Area, Super Highway, North Karachi, Federal B Area, Rizvia Society, Pak Fazaia Society and PECHS etc. The power utility continues to strongly endorse electrical safety precautions at home and outside and urges citizens to maintain safe distance from power infrastructure.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020