Balochistan power crisis triggered after pylons bombing far from over

QUETTA: At least 16 districts of Balochistan have been facing up to 22-hour long daily power outages for the last eight days owing to ongoing repair of transmission line towers, which some unknown miscreants had bombed a week before, Geo News reported.

According to sources, large swathes of Balochistan had plunged into darkness when four power pylons of 220 and 132 KV were blown up in the Bibi Naani area of Machh in district Bolan on July 18.

As a result power supply to Quetta, Pishin, Qilla Abdullah, Harnai, Qilla Saifullah, Zhob, Ziarat, Mastung. Khuzdar, Awaran, Kalat, Nushki, and other areas was cut off.

Quetta Electric Supply Company (QESCO) in a statement issues said that a makeshift supply line was activated from Habibullah Coastal Power House and Sheikhmanda Thermal Grid Station in the wake of this vandalism, but it could only supply 250 megawatts to the affected districts as against a demand of 1500 megawatts.

It added that the reason the consumers were suffering from up to 22-hour long blackouts was the repair work on the damaged infrastructure, which was still underway.

The power outages have drastically affected the businesses, industry, and domestic consumers.