KARACHI, Aug 30: As the city on Thursday afternoon received scattered showers with the Jinnah international terminal at the airport getting the maximum amount of approximately 11.6 millimetres, several areas such as Safoora Goth, Bahadurabad, Gulberg, Jamshed Road and parts of Federal B Area and Korangi experienced rain-related outages and voltage fluctuation.

Conceding that 46 feeders in the city tripped due to the rain, the Karachi Electric Supply Company said some of the tripping was due to an auto-safety mechanism built into the system for damage prevention.

“The 46 affected feeders were normalised in a span of two to three hours,” read a statement issued by the power utility.

However, a resident of Safoora Goth said the power at his place kept coming and going the entire day.

People from Gulberg and Jamshed Road reported voltage fluctuations with low voltage mostly that damaged some of their electrical appliances.

The KESC claimed that its special rain emergency team had been on standby and ‘rain alert mode’ activated.

Since Thursday morning, a Met official said, the sky remained mostly cloudy and some parts of the city began receiving sporadic rains in the afternoon.

The rain started around 1pm and continued intermittently throughout the day, he added.

According to the Met office, Pehalwan Goth received 7.3 millimetres of rainfall, University Road got 8.9 millimetres, Saddar three millimetres, Sharea Faisal five millimetres and North Karachi received traces of rains.

To drain rainwater, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board provided necessary machinery and manpower to the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC), said KWSB Managing Director Misbahuddin Farid.

He added that the water board had imposed a rain emergency, directing his officers and workers to coordinate with the KMC.

The KWSB and the KMC had come up with a joint plan for the disposal of rainwater as the water board’s chief engineers and workers had been directed to be present at the KMC emergency camps to be able to cooperate with them, he said.

The KWSB hoped that like the previous year when the KESC fully cooperated with them to ensure that electric supply to the pumping stations stay uninterrupted during the rain the power utility would extend similar cooperation this time as well.

Still, the KWSB, which also claimed to be ready for any rain-related emergency, had provided additional generators to all their pumping stations to ensure smooth operations in case of any technical defaults.

More rains forecast

Meanwhile, the meteorological department has forecast more showers for the city on Friday.The Met official said that weather was expected to remain partly cloudy to cloudy with chances of thunderstorm rains.

He added that the maximum temperature was likely to remain between 34 and 36 degrees centigrade.

The minimum and maximum temperature recorded on Thursday was 27.5 and 37.3 degrees centigrade, respectively. Humidity was recorded at 82 per cent.