LAHORE – Loadshedding duration has increased by 10 to 12 hours in the Lesco’s limits after a little relief in past three days. Electricity shortfall at national grid on Tuesday was below 4,000MW which touched 4,500MW on Wednesday. All major cities of Punjab are under the grip of more than 12 hour outage while it is beyond 14 in rural areas and there is no exception even during Sehar and Iftar timings. There is restricted supply of gas and furnace oil to some IPPs including power plants of WAPDA owned GENCOs which are major cause of load shedding, said an official of the power sector. He added that shortfall will remain near 4,000MW in August and it would come down in mid of September only due to decrease in demand. LESCO’s consumers are witnessing two to three hours consecutive power cuts in some areas of Lahore especially Thoker Niaz Beg, Allama Iqbal Town, Samanabad and Gulshan Ravi which is also creating water shortage in the area. People in Samanabad and Canal View areas also staged protests against the prolonged power cuts in the areas and chanted slogans against the LESCO authorities. They complained that their lives have turned into hell during to 12 hours load shedding in such humid weather. They said that if decrease in load shedding was not possible, the LESCO at least stop unscheduled blackouts.