Power outage leads to petrol pumps' closure
Pakistan
Power outage leads to petrol pumps’ closure
RAWALPINDI (Dunya News) – As the country was witnessing the power outage on Monday, the petrol pumps began to close in many cities.
In connection with the closure of petrol pumps, there was a fear of fuel crisis. Parts of Rawalpindi saw a long line of vehicles waiting for petrol. Similarly, Charsadda experienced a severe fuel crisis.
APTMA claims loss worth US$70 million due to power outage
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) on Monday reported a loss worth US$70 million to the country’s textile industry as power outage darkens the nation.
APTMA spokesperson told that if the issue was not resolved, the loss would balloon to billions of dollars.
Earlier, Pakistan’s national grid suffered a major breakdown, the power ministry said, leaving millions of people without electricity for the second time in three months and highlighting the infrastructural weakness of this heavily indebted nation.
Electricity will be fully restored by tonight, claims minister
Meanwhile, Minister for Energy Khurram Dastagir has said that the electricity in the country will be fully restored by tonight.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Monday, he said that the supply was affected due to the fault in the North, South power system.
The minister said by the grace of Almighty Allah the transmission system is safe, adding that there was an unusual fluctuation in the voltage, for the last several hours due to which the supply was affected.
Khurrum Dastagir said the outage was caused by a large voltage surge in the south of the grid, which affected the entire network.
Supplies were being partially restored from north to the south, he added, nearly six hours after factories, hospitals and schools reported outages. The grid should be fully functioning by 10 pm, Dastagir said, adding: "We are trying our utmost to achieve restoration before that."
Khurram Dastgir said that the entire transmission system was safe and there was no disruption in it despite the power breakdown. A power plant located in the Uch area was running and power supply to some areas of Balochistan and Southern Punjab has been restored, he said.
He said partial power supply to Karachi has also been started through Thar Coal Power plants and he was personally supervising the restoration operation from National Power Control Centre (NPCC).
He said NDTC had been given the authority to switch on any power plant needed for meeting the electricity needs. The Prime Minister has also ordered an inquiry and a three-member committee has been set up to probe the incident, he said.
He said restoration of electricity was a challenge as power needs to switch on each power plant. However, he expressed the hope that they would overcome the crisis by using the best of their abilities.
