ISLAMABAD: With a sudden rise in temperature, the phenomenon of unscheduled load shedding has returned to haunt the people of the country, who have been left at the mercy of outages of up to 22 hours long in the rural areas and 18-hour load shedding in urban centres.
The electricity shortfall has reached 4,800MW.Power load shedding has affected domestic life to a great extent and women are facing numerous problems in carrying out domestic chores.Meanwhile, the traders and business outlets have also been hit hard by the outages.Citizens said load shedding had been increased in the last week and had badly disturbed routine activities.
In Lahore, masses are facing up to 12-16 hours of load shedding. A similar situation is prevalent in Faisalabad, where load shedding has stretched to up to 18-22 hours.Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) tightened the security near grid stations following several protests against the unscheduled load shedding.The citizens chanted slogans against WAPDA and government during protests in various cities across Punjab.However, WAPDA officials said gas supply to Uch powerhouse had been resumed and 675MW would be added to the system soon. – PT
