Residents protest outage for over a week

LAHORE:Annoyed at persistent power outages, people of Hamza Town staged a demonstration against electric utility on Sunday.People of the area complained that electricity has been suspended for last over a week in their area near the Kahna Grid Station. They chanted slogans for immediate restoration of electricity while raising voice against staff of Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco). We are living a life like hell in the absence of power supply amid hot and humid weather, they said.

Meanwhile, electricity supply got suspended in various localities of the city due to rain. Nearly 100 feeders of Lesco tripped as result of rain. The most affected areas include Defence, Iqbal Town, Township, Hajveri Town, Mozang, Anarkali, Samanabad, Saggian, Sanda and Nisbat Road. An official of the power utility claimed that every possible effort is being made to ensure smooth power supply to consumers.

City receives scattered rain; thundershower forecast

Moderate but scattered rain was recorded in the City here on Sunday while Met office predicted similar weather conditions for the next 24 hours.

The rain started in the early morning and continued till evening in spans in various localities, including Iqbal Town, Mughalpura, Pani Wala Talab, Gulshan-e-Ravi, Samanabad, Gulberg, Qurtaba Chowk, Upper Mall, Tajpura, Airport, Lakshmi Chowk, Farrukhabad, Chowk Nakhuda, Nishtar Town, Jail Road, Johar Town, Model Town, Ichhra, Mozang, Faisal Town, Wahdat Colony and etc.

Traffic was slowed down due to rain on various roads. During the rain, a large number of motorcyclists took refuge under the underpasses resulting in traffic jams.Wasa MD Ghafran Ahmed visited the rain emergency camps and directed to move heavy machinery to most affected localities to immediately start rainwater drainage process.

He remained in the field and supervised the operation. Later, he visited disposal stations. Most of the stagnant rainwater on the main roads was cleared till evening, MD said, adding the agency’s field formations were stationed at emergency camps to tackle more rains.

Met officials said monsoon currents from Arabian Sea were penetrating southern parts while a westerly wave was also present over upper parts of the country.They predicted that mainly hot and humid weather was expected in most districts of Punjab province. However, rain-windstorm/thundershower was expected at isolated places in Murree, Galliyat, Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Attock, Jhelum, Chakwal, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Sialkot, Narowal, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Lahore, Kasur, Sheikhupura, Sahiwal, Okara and Bahawalnagar during evening/night while partly cloudy weather with rain-wind/ thundershower was expected at isolated places in Kashmir.Rainfall was also recorded at several cities across the country. Met officials said highest maximum temperature recorded in Punjab was at Bahawalnagar where mercury reached 43.0°C.