Sindh experienced fog on Monday morning as residents suffered through power breakdowns and poor visibility. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS
It took the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC), the tripping of whose four circuits of 220 kilovolts caused the power failure and Hesco many more hours to restore supply to all the districts by around 1:30pm.
"The thick fog caused the tripping in NTDC's system around 5am," said the company's spokesperson, Sadiq Kubar. According to him, all of Hesco's 71 grid stations and its 473 feeders were shut down.
The resumption of the electric supply began from Jamshoro district at around 10am, followed by Benazirabad and Hyderabad. However, complaints of a continuous breakdown kept pouring in from several districts till well into the afternoon. The Hesco spokesperson said that though the NTDC is providing electricity to the grid stations, the feeders connected to the grids are being staggered, which is causing a delay in some areas. An NTDC official, who requested anonymity, said that the company waited for the fog to clear before restoring power supply to Hesco.
Although many districts remained shrouded in fog, no accidents related to the weather condition were reported.
Low visibility
Foggy weather struck Karachi as well during the wee hours of Monday. The low visibility led to the diversion of some flights towards Nawabshah.
According to senior meteorologist at Jinnah International Airport, Akhlaq Jameel, there was about 50 metres visibility around 3am Monday morning. "This dense condition continued for about two-and-a-half hours," he said. "By 6:30am, it rose to 100 metres and by 8am the visibility was reported to be 300 metres with conditions improving each hour."
Published in The Express Tribune, November 8th, 2016.
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