Heat-stricken residents brave long hours of power outages

Rawalpindi

The heat-stricken residents of Adiala Road, Defence Road, Munawar Colony and Al-Mumtaz Colony are facing power cut after every 10 minutes while residents of Mukha Singh Street, Committee Chowk, Dhoke Ratta and Waris Khan are without electricity supply from 2 a.m. (Saturday night) and waiting for its resumption till the filing of this report on Sunday evening.

Sohail Maqbool, a resident of Committee Chowk, said “We are without power supply from 2 a.m (Saturday night). The UPS at my house went out of order because of long hours of loadshedding. The concerned authorities should think about it as public, particularly children, are facing worst situation in this hot and humid weather.”

The officials of Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (Iesco), on anonymity, blamed the government for long hours of power cut in hot and humid weather. “We will provide electricity according to the quota, however, we are totally helpless before this situation,” they said.

The residents of Caltex Road, Sher Zaman Colony and Bakramandi have strongly protested against long hours of power outages, which has made their life miserable. The protesters criticised the government for its failure in fulfilling its promise regarding putting an end to power loadshedding.

The residents have been spending sleepless nights for many days as Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) authorities were observing unscheduled loadshedding.

According to power consumers, the concerned authorities are teasing public especially at night through unscheduled loadshedding, fluctuations, tripping and low voltage. After every 10 to 15 minutes or half an hour, power supply disappears for one or two hours creating difficulties for consumers, they lamented.

In the light of the prevailing situation, the angry residents of affected areas of Adiala Road, Defence Road, Caltex Road, Sher Zaman Colony, Dehri Hassanabad, Tahli Morri, Mumtaz Colony, Pirwadhai, Dhoke Juma, Mubarak Lane, Jarahi, Munawar Colony, Askari 7, Askari 14 and several other localities held protests on Saturday. They raised slogans against the concerned authorities and appealed to the prime minister and minister for water and power for taking an immediate action against responsible people.

Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) Executive Engineer (Rawalpindi Circle) Muhammad Kashif Shah told ‘The News’ that the power feeders trip when load increases because of heat and humidity. He said that some days back, around 17 transformers had tripped due to hot and humid weather. “We are trying to provide electricity for the maximum possible time to public,” he claimed.

With rise in humidity level, the duration of loadshedding too has gone up across the twin cities, adding to the public woes. Most sectors of the federal capital and Rawalpindi suffer from around 8 to 12 hours of loadshedding, while some areas of Rawalpindi are facing power outages for more than 12 hours for some days.

The residents of majority of localities of city and cantonment are facing water shortage due to the absence of power. The heat-stricken residents of twin cities complained that unscheduled and prolonged power outages have made hot weather unbearable for them. They are spending sleepless nights due to power outages, they denounced.

A number of people told ‘The News’ that the long duration and unscheduled loadshedding has disturbed their routine life and it is very difficult for them to work in the offices after spending sleepless nights.