Most parts of Karachi on Wednesday experienced major power breakdowns shortly after the city received first shower of the current monsoon season. K-Electric, however, claimed that such a situation had arisen following tripping of its main transmission line due to the rains.
Power supply in most of the affected localities went off at around midnight and the KE officials took several hours to restore it. Residents of a number of affected localities, including North Nazimabad, Soldier Bazaar, Lyari, Lines Area, Korangi, Malir, Federal B' Area, complained that they remained without electricity for more than 12 hours on an average.
A resident of Soldier Bazaar No 3, Yawar Abbas, said that though the power supply in his locality went off at 11pm on Tuesday, it was not restored even after 12 hours. However, a spokesman for K-Electric claimed that 117 out of 1,450 feeders were tripped due to rains, but power supply to all affected areas was restored before 5am on Wednesday.
"Heavy winds and rainfall in some parts of the metropolis on Tuesday night caused sporadic tripping," the spokesman said, adding that due to heavy winds, many trees which were not pruned timely collapsed in some parts of the city, causing electrical wires to break." The delay in restoring power supply was also caused due to rainwater that remained stagnant in some areas, he added.
Meanwhile, complaints of broken wires have been received from different parts of the city. Cautioning about dangling and broken wires, the KE spokesman has requested consumers to inform the power utility about broken wires and technical faults by calling on 118 or by SMS to 8119 or register their complaint on KE's digital platform.
RAIN EMERGENCY: The city administration on Wednesday declared rain emergency, cancelling leaves of concerned departments' officials Meanwhile, Commissioner Karachi Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui on Wednesday visited different parts of the city to review the situation. He ordered the officials concerned to immediately remove all dangerous billboards, besides removing encroachments from the city.