LAHORE: In yet another case of substandard material and equipment use, a National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) team has found several discrepancies in the construction of two megaprojects, but the company’s management is reluctant to act, Dawn has learnt.

An official source told Dawn that the team visited two grid stations — a 500- kilovolt station in Rahim Yar Khan and a 220kV station in Lal Sohanra (Bahawalpur district) completed a few years ago — and found issues like substandard construction material, faulty circuit breakers, the absence of an oscillograph system, transformers in bad condition, etc.

“But such serious issues are not being taken up properly by the NTDC management,” the official said.

NTDC’s acting managing director declined to comment despite efforts to seek his version through phone calls, messages and email.

NTDC management yet to act over discrepancies, says official

According to a report shared with the NTDC’s asset management unit (north) last week, the team inspected the Rahim Yar Khan grid on Feb 9 and found serious negligence on the part of the contractor under the supervision of the company’s Extra High Voltage-II department and the consultants.

The same situation was earlier communicated to the higher officials concerned through a series of correspondences, but no prompt action was taken even after energising the grid on Feb 3, 2018.

During the Rahim Yar Khan visit, the team found a boundary wall of the grid station in deteriorated condition; increased contact resistance of circuit breaker, which keeps rising with the passage of time, affecting the current flow and may lead to tripping; and faulty design or erection of circuit breakers and isolators, causing severe vibration that may damage the pole and nearby equipment at any time.

The team found that the oscillograph system — an instrument used to indicate and record time-varying electrical quantities, such as current and voltage — had yet to be installed; use of substandard material in the civil works of a residential colony and rest houses; the non-provision of appr­oved schematic diagrams of protection and control panels, which are essential to ens­ure the quality of equipment and the non-functioning of event and fault recorders.

While visiting the Lal Sohanra grid station, the team found the foundation of the only single power transformer in deteriorated condition, substandard T&P equipment and other issues similar to the Rahim Yar Khan grid. The team recommended blacklisting of the contractors and action against consultants.

It was an official visit headed by senior officials in view of extensive correspondence made among the NTDC departments on various issues related to these megaprojects. “As many as 39 letters and reminders (15 regarding Rahim Yar Khan and 24 on the Lal Sohanra station) were written on the discrepancies emerged in these grid stations since their completion in 2018,” an official said. “But unfortunately, neither any inquiry was ordered nor someone from the NTDC office even bothered to visit these projects and take steps to rectify the issues.”

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2022