Militants blow up power pylons in Balochistan hours after officials had repaired it

NTDC officials had finished repair work on the lines on Friday


Shezad Baloch February 14, 2015
“Merely 200 to 300MW electricity is being supplied to most parts of Balochistan against the overall requirement of 1,650 MW,” an official of NTDC told The Express Tribune. PHOTO: PPI

QUETTA: Just hours after officials had repaired two 220 kilo Volt Ampere (kVA) transmission lines in Chatter area of Naseerabad district of Balochistan on Friday, militants blew it up again for a second time in as many weeks.

On February 7, militants had blown up two power pylons, plunging the province into darkness as power supply fell from 1,650 mega watts (MW) to just 300MW.

Due to security issues, a team from the National Transmission and Distribution Company (NTDC) started repair work on the damaged transmission lines under strict security from Frontier Corps (FC) and police. They managed to complete the repairs on Friday.

But just hours after they had left, militants blew up the lines again.

“Merely 200 to 300MW electricity is being supplied to most parts of Balochistan against the overall requirement of 1,650 MW,” an official of NTDC told The Express Tribune with power short fall in 16 districts of the province topping 1,350MW.

The NTDC officials said they had received security clearance of the area and would start repair work by Sunday. The banned Baloch Republican Army (BRA) had claimed responsibility for the previous incident. However, there have been no claims of responsibility for the latest attack.

The hours of load shedding increased to 20 hours a day in most parts of Balochistan and eight to ten hours a day in Quetta, an official of Quetta Electricity Supply Company (QESCO) said.

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