Massive power breakdown hits lower Sindh.

Byline: Mohammad Hussain Khan

HYDERABAD -- The entire lower Sindh region was hit by a massive power breakdown when a fire broke out and a technical fault developed in the transmission system on Tuesday.

The fire erupted in the 500kV grid station of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) located along Indus Highway, at a small distance from Jamshoro Thermal Power House, in the early hours of Tuesday.

Electric supply to one of the systems was restored by 6.45pm, according to the NTDC. No loss of life was reported in the fire incident.

The fire was brought under control with NTDC's firefighting system.

A massive flash of fire was noticed in the sky which was visible from even Latifabad flyover that had kept turning the sky blue and green with short intervals. People were seen taking photos with their mobile phones in many areas.

An explosion-sort of sound was heard as well. A section of the Indus Highway remained blocked due to falling of conductors on road.

Jamshoro Deputy Commissioner Farid Mustafa visited the spot after the incident.

'No major damage took place,' claimed an NTDC spokesman from Lahore over phone on Tuesday evening. 'It was a technical fault that led to the fire in the grid station's yard,' said the company's public relations officer without explaining nature of the technical fault that occurred and subsequently led to the fire.

According to him, Jamshoro-Rajputana and Jamshoro-Qasimabad 132kV system of the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) was affected due to the power breakdown. Both were re-energised at 6.45pm and 11.40am, respectively, he said.

He said the 132kV lines that were damaged and fell on the Indus Highway were being repaired by Hesco, and added that half of the work had already...