Four 220 KV transmission lines collapsed following thunderstorms. PHOTO: FILE
Bruising, 20-hour power cuts have driven residents of Quetta and other areas of Balochistan into a state of despair, compounding the ravages wrought by recent thunderstorms.
Even after a lapse of three days, the Quetta Electricity Company (Qesco) has failed to repair transmission lines that had collapsed in the wake of the thunderstorms.
Load-shedding hours in the provincial capital have grown in recent days following the collapse of four transmission lines of 220 KV between Sibi and Mach due to the thunderstorm.
Following the incident, electricity supplies were reduced to a mere four hours in 16 districts of Balochistan, including Bolan, Sibi and Mastung. “There is an issue of security. The team will not go to the area until security is provided,” said a Qesco official.
According to Qesco, there is merely 355MW available against the total need of 1,650MW, amounting to a shortfall of 1,255 MW. “The crisis deepened after four transmission lines of the National Transmission and Dispatch Company’s (NTDC) 220 KV double circuit got damaged and fell down,” Qesco official said. Bolan and Sibi are highly sensitive areas with the presence of armed militants, who often target security forces, police and power pylons.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 10th, 2014.
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last year just 3 days before May 11 elections line collepsed near Bolan. but it took 20 days to repear it.. its yearly sequance of Big lies..
This is a bunch of lies, every year in month of May, something goes wrong with the towers between Mach and Sibi, it is either that the militants have blown these towers or if militants can't be blamed then it is a thunder storm, and then there is this long delay as there is no security clearance, and it takes up at least a month to fix these pylons. Please QESCO, be a little more creative in your excuses as we all know why no electricity is provided to people of Balochistan. Nothing can be further then the truth that they want to deprive people of Balochistan of their livelihood, this is one way to push them backward, keep them in line.