KARACHI, June 14: Amid continuing load-shedding and after nightmarish power riots and traffic jams in the city, people are calling for penalising the new Siemens-led operations and management team of the KESC for the perpetual power outages.
Meanwhile tension was still raging in Liaquatabad and its adjoining areas as the KESC failed to rectify the faults. The utility faced an electricity shortfall of between 130 to 300 megawatts on Thursday afternoon as unit 5 of the Bin Qasim power plant could not be re-commissioned. Experts had not yet been able to rectify the fault in its electrical circuit while unit 4, which was put on the bar on Wednesday, was slowly gaining in generation capability.
In another development industries have now been persuaded to stop their operations from midnight to 6am to contain the energy shortage. Although officially it was declared that Karachi’s industrialists had “voluntarily agreed” to curtail the consumption of electricity from 12am to 6am, sources said that the provincial minister for trade and industry offered no other option.
The decision was taken in a meeting between office-bearers of five trade bodies from North Karachi, Site, Federal B Area, Landhi and Korangi and the provincial minister.
Sources claimed that the closure would cause considerable production losses and may hit the export targets of the various industries.
Trade and industry representatives were up in arms, asking who would compensate them for the losses caused by load-shedding, while the general public was equally concerned about the situation.
Trade and Industry sources hoped that the government would take up this matter with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the KESC, Mr Abdulaziz Al-Jomaih, who is in the country in connection with the stone-laying ceremony of a 220MW power plant.
They pointed out that the new management of the KESC had failed in the maintenance and operations of the Bin Qasim plant. In this connection they cited the history of unit 3, which was shut down on November 27, 2006, to January 2007 for overhauling and repairs. After being operational for a few days it was again shut down on February 11. This stop-start situation continued, with the latest shutdown lasting from June 10 to 12.
Knowledgeable sources were demanding that those officials who, at the time of the privatisation of the utility, had ignored the bonus and penalty clause should be penalised for causing such a colossal loss to the country. They were flabbergasted as they could not cite any other international agreement without a bonus and penalty clause.
Surprisingly, the sale agreement with the new KESC owners did not bind them to make any investments in the transmission and distribution network over a fixed period. No investment has been made in the system since privatisation.
Trade union leaders of the KESC pointed out that Siemens had no track-record of operating electricity generation and distribution networks and had not proved its “prudent utility practice” capability of a skilled and experienced international operator of an electricity distribution system.
They claimed that the KESC’s power generation over the last one-and-a-half-years has saturated and its distribution system has collapsed. Line losses have increased and complaints about the metering system have been on the rise. There has been no sign of a pragmatic action plan for enhancing the utility’s generation capacity.
Meanwhile, discontent is growing in the common people, especially dwellers of apartments and make-shift houses.
“No one is interested in our problem. The administration has collapsed and there seems to be no solution,” said a harassed old lady calling from Jamshed Road. She held the government as well as all the political parties responsible for the current problem and accused them of not being sincere to the people.
KARACHI, June 14: Amid continuing load-shedding and after nightmarish power riots and traffic jams in the city, people are calling for penalising the new Siemens-led operations and management team of the KESC for the perpetual power outages.
