KARACHI: In a major development, K-Electric has announced that several important commercial areas of Karachi, including Jama Cloth Market and the famous Burns Road food street, will now be exempted from power outages.
According to a spokesperson for the utility, the exemption is part of K-Electric’s broader goal of making the metropolis 90 percent free from load-shedding by 2030. The company credited the achievement to improved recovery of electricity bills and a notable reduction in line losses.
“Our joint efforts with consumers have made this possible,” the spokesperson said. “When people pay their bills on time and electricity theft declines, it allows us to provide uninterrupted supply.”
Currently, around 70 percent of K-Electric’s service areas already enjoy relief from load-shedding, thanks to the company’s quarterly performance reviews and enhanced surveillance systems. The utility has also intensified its crackdown on power theft, removing more than 330,000 kilograms of illegal connections—commonly known as kundas—in the current fiscal year alone.
K-Electric’s long-term strategy includes heavy investment in smart grid technologies and infrastructure upgrades, with the ultimate aim of eliminating power cuts across Karachi. However, officials cautioned that the exemption will remain performance-based: areas showing strong bill recovery and lower theft levels will continue to receive uninterrupted power, while those with poor payment records or high theft ratios may face stricter outages.
Earlier this year, the company also introduced a redesigned electricity bill format to make it easier for consumers to understand their charges. K-Electric has clarified that while the design has been modernized, there has been no change in tariffs or slab structures.۔
