Power supply restored in most Karachi areas after major breakdown

Karachi witnessed on Saturday a major power breakdown. Over half of the city lost electricity supply for several hours due to tripping of high tension power lines of K-Electric (KE).

The power supply was cut off at 2:30pm on Saturday and resumed after four to five hours. The power outage caused severe inconvenience to the people in the scorching hot weather.

The power utility company later updated that power generation through NKI and BQPS 2 was present in the power network, but supply from BQPS 1 would resume in the next two to three hours.

“During this time, due to load management some areas may experience power interruption due to load management; inconvenience is regretted,” it said in a tweet. “At this time, power supply to Karachi is continuing through 1500 feeders.”

The suspension of power also affected the water supply to the city from Dhabeji pumping station. The transmission lines, Baldia Town No1 and 2, which supply the electrical power from National Grid to Karachi had tripped due to which a large part of the city lost power. The repair work of the line was completed in one hour but the KE’s power system of was paralysed.

It took the system several hours to restore while the smoke started rising from Bin Qasim Power Plant No 1.The situation was further aggravated by this in the city.

The most affected areas included Korangi, Shah Faisal Colony, Malir, Cattle Colony, North Karachi, Baldia Town and Orangi Town.

The KE spokesperson said that the power supply to the national grid was cut off, but it was restored soon. The power in major areas was restored in the first phase, he added.

The spokesperson further said that the investigations at Bin Qasim Power Station were completed and there was no technical fault in any of KE’s production units.

Meanwhile, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board claimed that sudden power breakdown at major pumping stations had disrupted water supply to Karachi.

KWSB MD Asadullah Khan said that 75 million gallons of water could not be supplied to Karachi during the power breakdown from Dhabeji pumping station, Gharo pumping station and various other pumping stations. He appealed to the citizens to use water carefully in this situation.