MIRPURKHAS: The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company formally declared Mirpurkhas loadshedding-free on Monday at a special ceremony addressed by Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Justice (retired) Maqbool Baqar, Federal Minister for Power Mohammad Ali and Secretary Power Division Rashid Mahmood Langrial.

The CM congratulated people of Mirpurkhas on becoming the first consumers in the province to get loadshedding-free electricity and expressed the hope that Hesco would provide similar service to other cities as well.

He lauded the utility’s efforts towards ending loadshedding in Sindh and advised people to pay their bills on time and consume minimum electricity so as to save on power as well as on the bills.

He said: “The government is launching the loadshedding-free facility for people of Mirpurkhas on Dec 25, the birthday of the Father of the Nation Quaid-i- Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah”.

He praised the Hesco management and their entire team for having carried out combing work on all 16 feeders of Mirpurkhas city, which included securing of meters and transformers, strengthening of poles and wires and development work. It helped reduce losses to 17 per cent from 30 per cent and increase recovery, he said.

CM Justice Baqar hopes Hesco will ensure similar service for other cities as well

CM Baqar said the federal government had launched a nationwide campaign against electricity thieves and defaulters on Sept 7, 2023 so that the financial conditions of the electricity distribution companies can be improved by eliminating the menace of power theft.

He said that the Sindh government was fully cooperating with the entire administration of Hesco in order to ensure loadshedding-free power supply to all consumers. He appealed to the people to demonstrate their national responsibility and consume electricity only through legitimate sources. People should fully cooperate in this government campaign against power theft and facilitators of thieves, he said.

The Hesco administration should keep working to ensure that loadshedding-free facility was provided to other big cities as well, he said.

The institutions would be able to provide better services when public cooperated with them and Mirpurkhas had become its prime example as the city was being rewarded for such cooperation, he said.

Acting Federal Minister for Energy Mohammad Ali and Secretary Power Division Rashid Mahmood Langrial, who addressed the ceremony through video link, said that Mirpurkhas had become the first loadshedding free city in Sindh. “The credit for this singular honour goes to the people of Mirpurkhas and district administration,” they said.

They said: “We are grateful for the full cooperation extended by the district administration, police, business and journalist communities in helping us complete this project.”

Hesco’s chief executive officer Bashir Ahmed Gujjar said that there were 16 feeders of 11kV in Mirpurkhas city and the officers and workers of the power utility worked day and night to complete the difficult task of securing meters for 42,000 consumers.

He said that it was a gigantic task to install additional transformers and comb besides securing and straightening the poles and wires. About 364 million units would be saved in a year after the combining work in the entire Hesco region, he said.

He said: “Our first priority is to provide better supply and user-friendly service; and we appeal to public to pay their electricity bills regularly so that we can continue providing better service”.

Additional Secretary Power Division Hasan Naqvi, Chairman Hesco BoD Jamil Gul Shaikh, Mirpurkhas Commissioner Faisal Ahmed Uqeli, Deputy Commissioner Dr Rasheed Masood Khan, SSP Adil Memon, Hesco officers and a large number of citizens attended the ceremony.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2023