Power woes: Rolling blackouts test patience of Sukkur residents

Citizens face over 12 to 15 hours of unannounced load-shedding

SUKKUR: Rolling blackouts have been agonising residents of Sukkur, with 12 to 15 hours of power breakdowns and unannounced load-shedding.

The national grid has been relieved of major load due to the cold weather, yet additional electricity outage is taking place every day on various feeders of the city. The most affected areas come under the control of Old Sukkur sub-division, including Jeay Shah feeder, Shalimar feeder, Royal Road feeder, Qureshi Goth feeder and others.

Besides the longer power breakdowns over the pretext of technical faults, which usually stretch from eight to 12 hours, additional eight hours of load-shedding is done regularly on these feeders during 24 hours.



According to residents, on Monday night, power supply to Jeay Shah and Shalimar feeders was suspended at around 11:45pm, which was then restored the next day at 12:35pm in the afternoon. Interestingly, mobile phones of the relevant sub-divisional officer (SDO) and executive engineer were switched off, while the grid station officials were blaming the operation staff for engineered faults which caused the power breakdown, it has been learnt.

An official of the Old Sukkur sub-division, requesting anonymity, said almost all meter readers, meter inspectors and line superintendents are involved in creating engineered faults to cover line losses that occur due to power theft. The official added that gone are those days when people used to pay a certain amount to meter readers or other staff in the summer only to run air-conditioners.

Now people are paying money to meter readers throughout the year for power theft, he said. According to him, direct connections are being provided to people who give Rs200 to Rs4,000 per month, depending on the power load. At least every employee of the sub-division is running 100 free connections, he claimed.

When contacted, Old Sukkur SDO Rukhsar Qureshi said the high voltage conductors snapped, which caused the breakdown on Monday night. He added that the conductors are too old to withstand fog or extreme weather.

Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) public relations officer Manzoor Hussain Soomro confirmed the overnight breakdown and claimed most of the feeders throughout Sepco had tripped due to the heavy fog. As far as the breakdown on Jeay Shah and Shalimar feeders is concerned, the relevant SDO can explain it better, Soomro added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2016.