KARACHI: More than 70 percent of Karachi was without power since early Friday morning after a 500KV transmission line supplying electricity to the metropolis tripped near Jamshoro, bringing much of normal life in Pakistan’s largest city to a standstill.
The third major outage of the country’s dilapidated electricity grid within a month forced shops, hospitals and businesses to turn to back-up generators as the lights went out, including those in the provincial assembly. Trading at the stock market was not interrupted by the breakdown.
According to K-Electric, the main electricity supplier for the city, the 500KV high transmission line tripped near Jamshoro around 5:45AM, resulting in suspension of power supply to more than two-third of Karachi.
“Disruption at the 500kV EHT line has caused the Karachi Blackout, teams working to restore power asap,” said K-Electric in a message posted on their official Twitter account.
“Disruption at Hub-Jamshoro 500kV transmission line has affected KE’s network. Our teams are working non-stop to normalise the situation,” it said.
K-electric said high levels of humidity caused the transmission line to trip. “The tripping should not be attributed to any lack in the infrastructure, rather it was caused by high levels of humidity,” KE said in the statement on Twitter.
Areas including Tariq Road, Drigh Road, Gulshan-i-Maymar, Shah Latif Town, Buffer Zone, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Safoora Goth, Defence, Clifton, Saddar, Gurumandir, Lasbela, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Steel Town, Shadman Town, Liaquatabad, Lyari, Ranchore Lines, and Federal B Area were without power since early in the morning due to the power power failure.
A 72-inch diameter water pipeline burst at the Dhabeji pumping station after the power breakdown due to excess back pressure, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) executive engineer Lal Baksh Samoon told the media.
The pipeline burst also caused suspension of water supply to Karachi. According to Samoon, it could take up to 48 hours for the pipeline to be repaired.
