MUZAFFARGARH: A huge fire erupted at Unit-4 of a thermal power station here late on Monday night.

According to Mehboob Elahi, a security in charge and mechanical engineer, the fire engulfed the boiler in the unit at 2.30am.

Fire tenders reached the spot and started operation while the management closed down the unit. Flames kept flying high with the firemen doing their best to overcome the inferno for six hours.

He said the generation company would assess the losses as the department personnel were unaware about its running position.

It might take a month or more to make the plant operational, he said, but sources said that the power station had been contributing 1,300MW to the NTDC but after the fire its generation capacity had dropped to 1,000MW.

The unit, built by Chinese engineers in 1996, had become operational in 1998 with an initial capacity of 300MW.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2014