MOHAMMAD BILAL TAHIR

KARACHI: Citizens during the fresh spell of rains in the city once again braved the failure of K-Electric’s (KE) poor infrastructure that has unveiled the power utility’s tall claims of heavily investment in upgrading transmission, distribution and maintenance system.

Citizens of different areas have faced almost 24 hours-long breakdown in their respective areas and their complaints remained unresolved.

“Since the first drop of rain, I have been facing power outages. The wires broke down on the ground in accumulated rainwater. It appears that KE’s rain emergency system has completely been failed as teams did not fix the fault despite repeated complaints,” 25 years’ old Mohammad Ali Shaikh, a resident Behar Colony, told this correspondent.

The Complaint Cell of KE becomes ineffective for the consumers.

“I have been trying to lodge my complaint with KE Helpline 118 but the number remained busy as there

was no response from the other side,” Asad Sadiq said, who works at a private company.

Although, the power utility has also introduced SMS service for launching of complaints but the service failed to deliver during rains.

“I have received the unconvinced text message when I texted at KE’s short message service No 8119,” Sajjad Arif said. He also shared the SMS with this scribe, stating “Dear Customer, The supply to your area is disrupted due to technical fault. We are trying to restore your supply as soon as possible. K-Electric”.

“I am the honest consumer of KE but it failed to provide services most importantly in rains,” Mehar Baloch said.

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,” Abdullah Khoka, a KE consumer, said.

Consumers also 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.

Many areas of the city including Garden East, Garden West, Lasbella, Patel Para, Lyari and others remained without power for over 26 hours till filing of this report, as power supply to the area, which suspended with the Friday showers, could not be restored even on Saturday by the power utility.

In its press statement, KE said monsoon rains started on Friday evening, which caused EHT line tripping from Bin Qasim and affected different areas of Karachi. The areas included vicinity of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Garden, DHA and Dhabeji. The rain on Friday caused 400 feeders to trip, most of which are now restored. It must be noted here that the areas with high number of consumer using illegal connections always have high number of wire broken complains which caused delays in restoration of power in these areas.

According to KE Spokesperson, “KE teams have worked on 24-hour shifts and most of the areas were restored within a short span of time. Different areas of the city including Dhabeji were restored on high priority.

However, in some of the areas power could not be restored due to the roads submerged in rainwater. The areas of DHA, Malir and Gulshan-e-Iqbal along with other areas of the city were also restored during the night”.

The press statement further added that the second spell of rain continued on Saturday morning caused tripping in some additional areas, which were the vicinities of Garden, Clifton, Lyari, Gizri and some parts of North Karachi. The power breakdown in the second spell of rain at Dhabeji and Gharo was again restored on priority basis. During the second

spell of rains, out of KE’s 1,450 feeders, only 200 feeders were affected which KE Rain Emergency Response Teams have restored immediately.

KE Spokesperson further added, “K-Electric’s Rain Emergency Response Teams are prepared to tackle any situation occurring round the clock.

We apologized to all our consumers for the recent disruption of supply in the city and would also reiterate that KE Teams will continue to works round the clock for complete restoration.

“In some areas the team is dealing with challenge of broken wires and standing water. The restoration work in these areas is being carried out with support and cooperation of town management.

Consumers are requested to inform the utility of any broken wires or technical faults or raise queries by calling on 118 and 021-99000 or by SMS to 8119 or register their complaint on KE’s digital platforms.”