October 12, 2005	Wednesday	Ramzan 7, 1426

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LAHORE, Oct 11: The earthquake has affected at least 10 Wapda grid stations and it may take months to put them in a working condition, say sources in the authority. The worst-hit grid stations, they say, are Bagh, Balakot and Muzaffarabad. In Bagh, a partial supply may be restored within next 24 hours but the restoration of full supply may take a week or so.

Muzaffarabad has borne the brunt of the crisis as all its four transformers have been damaged to varying degrees. According to Wapda people, one transformer may be restored as early as Wednesday morning but restoration of the second may take another week and the other two at least three to four months because of massive construction work required for the job.

And to ensure that, the authority has to first remove damaged parts and then move in heavy equipment to re-construct the whole area.

They claim that the Balakot grid station will be comparatively easier to restore and it may be able to work partially in the next two to three days.

Talking about the financial impact of the tremor, the sources say it will be too early to estimate any loss. It is certainly massive as the damage has been done to large and inhospitable areas.

Eight Wapda teams are assessing the loss and they may be able to come up with some calculations in a week’s time. The fiscal side is also hard to calculate because the Azad Kahsmir government used to run the power system by itself. Now Wapda is involved and it may be able to work out the total cost in near future. “It will certainly run into millions if not billions,” they add.

The authority swung into action immediately after the tremor and the pace of the work will pick up in the next few days, as it has now been relieved of the water projects. All the water projects are now safe and the authority will move all its resources — human and material — to the power sector in the affected areas, sources say.

But the nature of the damage is such that it would certainly take months and even the best resources seem meagre. Roads have to be cleared before heavy equipment could be moved to restore certain grid stations. Despite all this and the fact that housing colonies have been razed in some areas and gadgets suffered in others, Wapda’s biggest pools of engineers can take up every kind of civil and electrical work. They have moved to do the repair job. Partial supplies would hopefully be restored in a day or two and then restoration work would move in full gear.

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