Major snag hits thermal plant
Tribune News Service

LEHRA MOHABBAT, Aug 14 — Following the development of a major fault in the turbine, the first unit of the Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant (GHTP) here was closed late last night.

Official sources said the turbine of the first unit got jammed when the supply of lubricant oil failed to go into it due to the negligence of the attendants of the turbine section.

The sources said loss due to the jamming of the turbine would be assessed in the next two days. The loss could vary from Rs 4 crore to hundreds of crores.

Mr T.L. Palka, Chief Engineer, GHTP, and Mr S.P. Sharma, Member (Generation), Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), who were on the spot when this correspondent visited the site, said as per the preliminary assessment, the loss was only of the generation which would be about Rs 3.5 crore.

Mr Palka claimed that the unit would be commissioned again after 10 day after carrying out the necessary repairs. However, a senior engineer who did not want to be named said at least two months were needed to put the unit back on the rails.

This is the third major incident in the GHTP in the past three months. On April 17, the thermal plant suffered a loss of lakhs of rupees due to the leakage of furnace oil from the storage tanks. It again suffered loss of lakhs of rupees when a major fire broke out in the boiler of the unit on April 28.

Mr Palka said the turbine got jammed when the lubricant oil supply failed to go into the bearing chamber of the turbine. He said the GHTP authorities had made a written complaint against 12 persons to the police who were being suspected of negligence. He said these persons did not close the valve of the lubricant oil tank which resulted in draining out of all lubricant oil within no time.

Mr Sohan Singh Sandhu, DSP, Rampura Phul, who was on the spot for making investigation, told TNS that the police was making its own inquiries and the case against the 12 persons named in the complaint would be registered only when their negligence was confirmed following investigation.

He said only after proper investigation the possibility of any sabotage could be ruled out. He said a team of policemen was questioning all those persons on duty when the fault developed in the turbine.

The sources said for the past four days some miscreants had been disturbing the functioning of the switch room of the unit one. Mr Palka said he had deployed a man specially to look after the switch room.

When asked whether the fault in the turbine developed due to shortage of operation and maintenance staff, he said the required strength of the operation and maintenance staff had been posted in the plant. The fault had developed due to the lack of supervision and the PSEB authorities were looking into this aspect.

The sources said that since the commissioning of the first unit in July, it had been experiencing frequent trippings. For carrying out the necessary repairs, the GHTP authorities had demanded the 15 days shutdown from the PSEB authorities in July and the PSEB authorities denied the shutdown then and asked the GHTP authorities to undertake the shutdown after the paddy season.

Mr Palka said at present the unit was running at 150 MW and was producing about 35 lakh units of electricity daily. He said the turbine would be opened for detecting the fault after its temperature came down below 100° Celsius.

He said the turbine was fully insured and its maintenance was with Swamina International Company. He said that all attendants of the turbine when the fault developed were the workers of the firm.

Goa Speaker disqualifies CM, 9 others

PANAJI, Aug 14 (PTI) — Goa was plunged into a constitutional crisis today with Speaker Tomazinho Cardozo disqualifying Chief Minister Wilfred Desouza along with nine other MLAs of the breakaway group of the Congress from the membership of the state legislative assembly.

The verdict disqualifying the 10 out of the 25-member Congress Legislature Party who formed the Goa Rajiv Congress Party’ (GRCP) was given by Mr Cardozo in his chamber on two separate petitions filed by Congressmen.

The petitions seeking their disqualification under the Anti-Defection Act were filed by former Chief Minister, Pratapsinh Rane and former Revenue Minister, Wilfred Mesquita following the political developments last month when Mr Desouza led a revolt against the Rane government resulting in a split in the Congress.

The coalition government headed by Mr Desouza assumed office on July 29 following the dismissal of the Rane government by Governor J.F.R. Jacob.

The Goa Bench of the Mumbai High Court subsequently set aside the restraint ordered by the Speaker on those 10 MLAs' participation in the assembly proceedings.

Shamshad Begum dead

MUMBAI, Aug 14 (PTI) — Grandmother of actress Saira Bano and noted singer of yesteryear, Shamshad Begum, who enthralled listeners of All India Radio for two decades with her melodious voice, is dead.

The virtuoso singer, who was over a hundred years old, passed away at her Pali Hill residence last Monday, family sources said today.

The “queen of music,” as she was known in her prime years, was a disciple of the great sarangi exponent Ustad Hussain Bux.

Shamshad, a dreamer as a child, always reciting and humming her own little innovation of songs in praise of God, lived her life fully and eventfully, seeing her daughter Naseem flourish as an actress.

Her grand-daughter, Saira, scaled great heights of fame in Hindi cinema as its most beautiful and highest paid star of her times.