TANDO MUHAMMAD KHAN                      -               The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) has failed to maintain uninterrupted power supply in Tando Mohammad Khan, Thatta, Sujawal and Badin districts as many areas in these districts have been facing prolonged power breakdown and unannounced loadshedding for the last one week

The situation has become more difficult in the wake of a lockdown announced by the Sindh government on Sunday to prevent the possible spread of coronavirus in the province.

Talking to The Nation on Sunday, people complained that in the current situation, when all people were advised to stay at home and comply with the government’s decision, they had been forced to move outdoors due to the suffocation caused by prolonged power outages.

Sources at a complaint centre of the HESCO said that they had received several complaints of power breakdown from different parts of the city, including Court Line, Al-Fateh Chowk, Peoples Colony, Nasirabad Mohallah, Behrani Mohalla, Memon Mohalla, Khawaja Mohalla, B&R Colony, Talpur Colony, Gulshan-e-Faiz Colony, Pir Mohalla, Mir Mohalla, Burira Mohalla and Barrage Colony.

They further said that power crisis had raised its head soon after the advent of summer season. An act of sabotage at a transmission tower of the HESCO had also increased gravity of the situation, they told this scribe.

They added HESCO was resorting to loadshedding in some of the areas of the city in order to repair the pylon. The loadshedding will continue for a couple of days more, they disclosed.

A resident of Memon Mohalla said that power supply in his area was disrupted twice on Saturday. “In the first instance, it took three hours for the electricity supply to be restored. Soon, there was blackout again,” he told this scribe.

When contacted, a HESCO official at the complaint centre informed this correspondent that the HESCO was resorting to loadshedding for only two hours.

A resident of Gulshan-e-Faiz Colony said that he had been witnessing hide and seek game being played in his locality for the last three days.

He said that despite lodging complaints with the HESCO staff several times, they always came late to repair the faults.

Besides outages, complaints of low voltage and fluctuation in power supply are also received from different city areas on a daily basis.

People complain that their electrical appliances had become faulty due to fluctuation in the power supply.