Residents protest against prolonged power cuts

Say has Chung area been in the dark for last three days

LAHORE: Citizens of Chung protested against suspension of electricity for the last three days in their area on Tuesday.

The heat-weary citizens who blocked Multan Road from both sides and protested for hours told Express News that different areas of Chung have been facing power outage for the last three days due to Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) stubbornness.

They added that area plunged into darkness due to power outage and citizens are also experiencing hardship due to lack of water in mosques for ablution due to load shedding. They said that the government should take notice immediately.

SDO Chung could not be contacted despite several attempts.

LESCO's statement

LESCO is implementing an average two to four hours electricity load-shedding on a daily basis in its domain. The company is responsible for ensuring power supply to districts of Lahore, Kasur, Okara, and Sheikhupura.

LESCO spokesperson told APP on Tuesday that the company had now been observing load-shedding in accordance with its daily schedule, however, its duration varied for consumers of various categories, including industrial, agricultural, commercial and domestic.



To a question, he said the daily average duration of load-shedding in LESCO's area of operation was three to four hours for urban centres and about two hours for rural areas.

He, however, added that sometimes, consumers observed long-time power outages in various areas, which was due to system maintenance and up-gradation on the power feeders of those areas.

He said that LESCO had initiated and completed a number of projects for stability of electricity supply system, besides augmenting projects of grids upgradation. LESCO was the only company among other power distribution companies which upgraded all its 66Kv grid stations to 132Kv. It was a top priority of LESCO to provide safe and quality supply of electricity to the consumers, he said. "We have managed substantially, as power supply system is now much stable during Ramazan," he said, asserting that despite severe weather condition, the company was fulfilling its commitment to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply to its valuable consumers of all categories. The spokesman said that upgradation of the system would help resolve the problems of over-loading, low-voltage and tripping in different areas of LESCO's operation.

(With additional reporting by APP)

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2018.