The city witnessed protest against load-shedding in various areas on Thursday, as the angry KESC consumers blocked roads in their localities and chanted slogans against the power utility for being unable to provide uninterrupted electricity supply. The situation resulted in traffic jams in these areas.
The residents of Banaras, Orangi Town, Liaquatabad and Pak Colony took to the streets and blocked traffic flow, while groups of women gathered in Saeedabad and Balida and blocked the Hub River Road for several hours that affected inter-city and intra-city traffic.
Strongly condemning KESC’s inefficiency, the demonstrators said that they were facing power outages from 10 to 12 hours daily, while the KESC staffers were not attending to their complaints.
The women demonstrators said that power failure was also causing water shortage in their areas, which was badly affecting their domestic chores.
A KESC official, when contacted, said that they were resorting to two hours load-shedding in every area and the city was divided in four zones.
A well-placed source at KESC said that 50 per cent of electricity from Hub-Baldia centre had been restored but the situation remained out of control throughout Thursday. He added that the KESC was facing a shortfall of over 600 megawatts.
A resident of Gulistan-e-Jauhar’s Block-7 called at The News offices and said that they had faced five prolonged power outages during 24 hours, as the electricity remained off for more than 12 hours.
The residents of Gulshan-e-Iqbal said that they were facing load-shedding of more than 10 hours daily. Another caller from Saddar said that their businesses were being badly affected by prolonged power breakdowns.
A resident of Clifton’s Phase-II said that they were facing load shedding of four to five hours on daily basis.