KARACHI - The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) was miserably failed to restore power supply in the metropolis on the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday. It is pertinent to mention here that Chief Minister, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, had directed the KESC to resolve the issue by Tuesday night. According to the sources, PEPCO has decided to cut short its supply to KESC in the wake of existing power crisis in the country that could further aggravate the situation in Karachi. PEPCO will supply 350 MW to KESC instead of 600 to 700 MW per day. The coming 15 to 20 days are very important with regard to the fate of the present KESC management. The deteriorating power supply situation after the breakdown on Saturday and the one on 17th June speaks volumes about the poor performance of this management. The company is likely to be taken into government control after cancellation of its privatisation, a reliable source informed. The source added that the issue of the KESC and its privatisation has been deeply politicised as the Abraj Group has links with the high ups in the federal government. These forces want to settle their political accounts with the federal government at the cost of poor power supply situation in the metropolis. Talking to The Nation, an official of the company denied that the management was trying to escape the situation. He also rejected the notion of KESC nationalisation. Meanwhile, during a press briefing Jan Abbas Zaidi, KESC Chief Operating Officer (Distribution), said the company was supplying 1756 MW of electricity to the City. He said that with further correction of faults and replacement of damaged cables and transformers etc. the load would continue to increase till it reached the normal level of over 2000 MW. During the past 24 hours the KESC had replaced 45 PMTs and most of the 160 sub-stations had been cleared of standing water. Over 60 per cent of the troubled areas had started to get power supply. He further said that the faults occurring in areas close to the sea were difficult to resolve as carbonisation, which hindered energising of circuits. The utility had resolved 41 faults of 82 received during the past 24 hours, total of 309 feeders had tripped which had been fixed back. Giving details of cable faults, he expressed hope that the repair work would be completed by Tuesday night. These areas included: Blocks 2 and 6 of PECHS, Block 14 sub-station in Gulshan Iqbal, PIB Colony sub-station, E Market KDA, two sectors of Landhi-Quaidabad sector, 11 dedicated feeders of Korangi Industrial Area, Malir-Shah Faisal sub-station, I. A. Qureshi sub-station Drigh Road, some localities of Gulshan Hadeed, downstream sub-station of Port Qasim-2, Askari-5 sub-station and Seaview sub-station. Also, he said, PMTs mostly of 250 KV, will be replaced in Nazimabad, Federal B. Area, Block 1 and 6 of Gulshan Iqbal, residential area of SITE, Surjani, Sector 11-G of Orangi. He said the areas where faults had been resolved included Ahmad Shah Bokhari sub-station, PNS Haider, Ayaz Masjid, Khayaban-e-Badar, Pak Arab Refinery, Gas Engineering, Delhi Muslim, Clifton Telephone Exchange, PECHS Block S, Small Industries, T&T Colony Pipri, Maymar, Dawood Engineering sub-station. He said Gadap Grid was also under repair. Zaidi said that the citizens had lot of expectations from the new management of KESC and the utility had been working round the clock to come up to their hopes. This time the Monsoon had brought unexpected quantum of rains in the shortest time which had delayed the response time. He said that the Meteorological Department had forecast further heavy downpour in the coming few days for which the KESC as well as the citizens needed to be ready.