KARACHI: As the ongoing hot weather showed no signs of abating, several parts of the city experienced recurrent power outages, while residents of many other neighbourhoods complained that they had been without power supply since the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The problem was caused due to the tripping of a power unit at the Bin Qasim Power Plant, according to a Karachi Electric statement.But the power utility claimed that the duration of outages was brief, as the supply was restored shortly after the problem had been fixed.

That was at lam when it was also being said by the power utility that there was no other problem such as tripping of any high tension wires or any grid station. Throughout Wednesday KE didn`t deviate from that statement though the power kept playing hide-and-seek inseveralareas tilllate hours.

`I have been complaining to KE since morning but they say it is not connected to the Bin Qasim unit`s tripping. They say it is a technical fault, whatever that means in their dictionary,` said an exasperated consumer from North Karachi who said half of his neighbourhood had been without power since 5.30am.

Another consumer from Clifton`s Block 7 complained thatshe has been told by the KE that her area was undergoing maintenance. `KE keeps shutting off power citing maintenance for six hours every other day or so. The person I spoke to when I called them said that maintenance was necessarytoensure uninterrupted supply. What uninterrupted supply are they talking about?` People from different localities including different blocks and phases of Clifton and Defence Housing Authority, Nazimabad, North Nazimabad, Gulshan-iIqbal, Malir, and PECHS kept calling Dawn`s office to share their grievances about KE.

`These people are not even interested in listening to our complaints until we give them our account number. Then they check if we have paid our bill or not before entertaining our com-plaint,` said a consumer from North Nazimabad who said his building had been without power since 10am.

`When I gave them my account number I was informed that I had not paid my bill as yet, though I had. They don`t even update their records and we have to suffer because of their negligence in this heat,` he said.

When contacted in the evening about his views on the matter, general secretary of the KESC Shareholders Association Choudhry Mazhar Ali said the power utility was being economical with the truth to save itself from the embarrassment of running an inefficient system. `Even now,` he said on Wednesday evening, `30 per cent of Karachi is submerged in darkness but our wonderful power utility just won`t admit it.`First they have an inefficient system, which is one of the main reasons behind the tripping of power units every now and then.

This is made worse by having incompetent people running things. You need technically sound people in an organisation, he added.

Later, a grid station in Baldia caught fire, affecting supply to SITE,Valika, Orangi,Haroonabad and North Karachi.

KE`s response to this new situation was: `KE teams are working non-stop to normalise power supply.` And then while the areas were still in darkness, it was said that `K-Electric teams responded immediately and worked with the fire department to control the situation and initiate restoration work. Power supply to the affected areas was timely restored.