The power crisis raises its ugly head once again as the country is in the grip of extreme heat these days with the mercury level rising above 40c at many places, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Sunday.
The country is witnessing the worst electricity loadshedding with a duration of 8 to 10 hours in a day in many cities. People are facing extreme hardship in this month of Ramazan as they have to bear long power outages. Much to the chagrin of fasting people, the power companies are doing loadshedding even at Sehri and Iftar times.
The prolonged power outages could be seen in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and all other big cities.
In many areas of Karachi, the electricity has gone for the last 8 to 10 hours. There was no power supply in Lyari, Lines area, Korangi, Orangi Town and Baldia.
Citizens complained that were facing extreme difficulty at the time of Sehri and Iftar when there was no power.
On the other hand, the K-Electric claimed that there was an improvement in the power supply in Karachi. The NTDC claimed that the supply of 1,000MW electricity had been restored and it had cut down the loadshedding duration. It said that no loadshedding was being carried out in exempted areas.
In Lahore, the unannounced loadshedding was going on in the month of Ramazan creating numerous problems for the fasting people.
In urban areas, the loadshedding duration is four hours while the duration in the suburban and border areas is six hours.
However, since today (Sunday) is holiday, so the Lesco experienced a 400MW decrease in the electricity demand. The demand has been waned due to closure of commercial markets on Sunday.
According to Lesco, the demand for electricity was 4,200MW while supply was 3,650MW. So there is a shortfall of 550MW and loadshedding is being carried out in different areas of the city to meet the demand, Lesco added.
In Nawabshah, where temperature touches 45c today, many loadshedding-stricken youngsters are heading towards the city canal for taking a cool dip.
Former PTI minister Hammad Azhar has also added his two cents to the rolling blackouts in the country.
In a tweet uploading on Sunday, Hammad Azhar said “One of the reasons for the loadshedding is that despite repeated warnings in the last two weeks, the Sahiwal coal power plant has not been properly paid and as a result it has gone to its half capacity. It has no money to buy imported coal.”
Reporter Shahid Sipra