KARACHI - Brief spell of rainfall and wind in parts of the city on Tuesday once again exposed the performance of the provincial and local government authorities in the city.  The spell that happened for the second consecutive day brought more respite for the Karachiites that were witnessing halt of sea breeze due a depression created in the Arabian Sea and temperatures soaring up to 40 C. The meteorological department officials had predicted a spell of mild heatwave in the city till Tuesday with further predictions of improvement in temperatures from Wednesday and a moderate to heavy shower in the city on Thursday and Friday.  The unexpected rainfall in the city on Monday and once again on Tuesday in the afternoon brought a sigh of relief for the residents in the city, who were witnessing soaring temperatures for past three days.  “It was bright sunshine, hot and humid atmosphere early on Tuesday but suddenly around 2:30 am, dark clouds covered the sky and heavy showers were witnessed around Karachi University and areas adjoining it,” said one of the residents living in Scheme 33 area of the city. He said that suddenly light showers turned into strong wind and heavy showers that lasted for around half an hour. Met official Sardar Sarfaraz predicted more rainfall in the city especially on September 25 and 26 and said that another spell could hit the city from September 29 due to a low pressure area looming around Indian Gujarat with its extension to lower Sindh.  Although no casualties were reported during the brief rain spell, however, some incidents of ceilings falling apart in a shopping mall and trees blown up due to heavy winds were also reported in parts of the city.

 The brief spell of heavy to moderate showers that lasted for half an hour once again repeated scenes of pools of water on key routes in the city, traffic jams, and power outages in the city.  Key routes in the city including Shahra-e-Faisal, roads leading to Saddar, Nazimabad, North Karachi, Shahra-e-Pakistan and others witnessed traffic jams and pools of the water.

Brief and long spells of power outages were also reported in parts of the city either due to the shutdown from the K-Electric to avoid any casualties or local faults.

The KE spokesperson said that during the brief rain spell in Karachi on Tuesday, K-Electric Rapid Response Teams immediately responded to emerging faults to restore power supply to affected areas swiftly. Power supply was put off in some areas of North Karachi, Bin Qasim, Korangi and parts of Baldia as a safety precaution, however over all power situation across the city including at all strategic locations like KWSB pumping stations as well as across other parts of Johar Gulshan, Lyari, Bahadurabad, Old Town and Saddar remained unaffected.  

KE failed restructuring its power supply system as several feeders tripped in last two-day light rains in Karachi. Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi said that no steps were so far been taken by entity to provide relief to power consumers.

He demanded of the government and National Electric and Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to take serious notice on incapability of KE.