The National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) has successfully completed the repair and restoration work of 500-KV power pylon. It is pertinent to mention the unknown miscreants damaged it two-week before near Badaber in the suburbs of Peshawar. The 500-KV Tarbela, which supplies power to Peshawar transmission line, has now been commissioned and the power supply to the NWFP through this source has been completely restored.
Tahir Basharat Cheema, General Manager Pepco told Business Recorder that tower No 331 of 500-KV Tarbela was damaged on August 08, due to bomb blast, disrupting about 700 to 800 MW power supply from Tarbela to Peshawar. He said that non-availability of such a huge quantum of electricity resulted in a crisis-like situation in NWFP especially in Peshawar.
However, the NTDC, by taking prompt action, managed to supply 400-MW of electricity from Barotha Power House through an alternate source of 220 KV Barotha-Shahi Bagh transmission line to mitigate the problem. Side by side, NTDC also started repairing the damaged tower and completed this important task within just eight days. He said such an assignment normally takes at least three weeks to be accomplished.