Tripping: 31 feeders affected by rains

ISLAMABAD:

Many areas of Rawalpindi and Islamabad plunged into darkness on Thursday night after heavy rain and landslide affected 31 feeders of the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO).

The areas affected included Peshawar More, Westridge, Afshan Colony, Gulzar Colony, Al-Noor Colony, Fazal Town, Dadyal, Chandni Chowk, Dhamial, Gulshan-e-Jinnah and Chaklala. Some localities remained without power for up to 16 hours on Friday. Feeders of sectors F-6 and F-15 were also affected.

Voltage fluctuation also created problems for the people. IESCO sent teams to fix the problems but incessant rain caused difficulties for the technical teams. Water and power secretary ordered the authorities to set up emergency control centres to address public complaints.

IESCO Chief Engineer Fayyaz Hussain Siddiqui said that 24 feeders were affected in Rawalpindi and seven in Islamabad. Siddiqui said rains and landslides has badly affected the infrastructure as a number of electricity polls have been uprooted and transformers damaged.

Siddiqui, however, said that all the feeders were fixed and power supply restored in all areas by Friday evening. He said that electricity was restored by shifting the load to adjacent feeders for the time being.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2014.