MULTAN, Jan 28: Electric gadgets worth millions of rupees have reportedly been turned into scrap due to the negligence of the staff at the local 500kv grid station.

Sources said the grid station authorities recently took out about 20,000 kilograms of serviceable aluminium conductor from the C class store of the grid to weigh it from a private weigh bridge as part of an ongoing inquiry into the shortage of implements as against the record.

The grid station staff reportedly unwrapped the serviceable conductors from the reels to upload them on the cranes to take them to the weigh bridge. Technical experts say that the conductors became unusable for construction of transmission line once they were unwrapped and uploaded and unloaded.

Sources said the gross mishandling had occurred despite the fact that the in-charge of the grid was familiar with the sensitivity of the equipments. They said the cost of the damaged equipments was not less than Rs8 million.

It is learnt that a local senior official of the grid systems operations had sent a letter to the chief engineer of National Transmission and Dispatch Company, Multan region, to cover up the loss by claiming that there was not any serviceable aluminium conductor in the store.

Sources, however, said an inspection carried out by a director of the NTDC's Multan region a few months ago had found more than 20,000 kgs of serviceable aluminium conductors at the C class store.