KARACHI, March 17: The KESC has rewarded its team of engineers and workers for saving country's valuable foreign exchange to the tune of over Rs3 million and working beyond the call of duty in repairing underground 132,000kv extra-high tension cable in a record time of three days.

At a ceremony held in honour of the KESC engineers and workers, KESC Managing Director Brig Tariq Saddozai gave cash award of Rs3,000 each to XEN Tanveer Rana, AEEs Abbas and Ashfaq, Sub-engineer Dilshad Hussain, workers Muhammad Haroon and Muhammad Afzal.

For correct assembling of two EHT cable-joints, each costing about Rs800,000, Sardar Alam was awarded Rs5,000 and promoted to the next grade. Services of Chief Engineer Shabbir Khattak and Deputy Chief Engineer Mohammad Qamar were also appreciated for their round-the-clock supervision.

A KESC spokesman said that the EHT cable was damaged by the FWO ground excavator at Korangi Road. Due to the damage, he said, Jacob Lines and Garden Grid stations had become dead, disrupting power supply to about 93,000 consumers of Saddar, Jacob Lines, Garden, Frere Road and adjoining areas.

He said that the repair work even at fast track would have taken at least five to six days. However, the KESC management realizing the extreme necessity of uninterrupted power supply during the Saturday's cricket match motivated the workers to normalize both the grids by Friday evening, which they did successfully, he added.

In the past, he said, such cable joints were fixed by Chinese and German engineers, who used to take four to six weeks. Besides, the cost of work was also four times more than the present cost. -APP