MULTAN: The power supply at most parts of South Punjab has been restored on Sunday afternoon after a major breakdown in the national grid which affected the supply system for over 12 hours.

The supply of the electricity was suspended at about 11:45 p.m. on Saturday night in South Punjab followed by a technical fault in the national grid system.

The people faced various problems due to outages including shortage of water and they managed it from alternative ways, especially from hand pumps.

When contacted, Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO) General Manager Operations Engineer Tariq Mahmood Buttar told APP here on Sunday that the power supply has been brought back up to 80 percent of the region, adding that the complete supply would be restored by this evening. He said that restoration work was in progress in far-flung areas of South Punjab.

The GM informed that the power system was inter-connected and it tripped as load increased on the system. He said that the electricity supply of the Multan city has been restored completely. Replying to a question, Tariq said that country had witnessed such a major breakdown about two and half years ago during summer season.

To another question, he stated that the electricity was restored at nearest power stations first after the fault is fixed and afterwards it's completed at other stations with the passage of time. Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) Managing Director Nasir Iqbal said that they have alternate arrangements of generators for water supply in case of sudden loadsheding, adding that the water was being supplied to citizens as per schedule.