Faulty generator leaves tourists hanging

TDCP often faces power failure at the cable car system

ISLAMABAD:

Hundreds of tourists were left dangling in the air for hours on Tuesday evening when the Patriata chairlift near Murree came to halt after a major fault emerged in a recently-installed generator.

Due to the absence of a backup power supply system, the management failed to rescue the stranded tourists for over two hours.

At present, the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab (TDCP) is overseeing the affairs of the chairlift installed at the famous hill resort of Patriata, some 25 kilometers from Murree.

Genny’s story

The TDCP management has been facing problems ever since the Rs7 million generator was installed in May 2014 as it has an extra capacity of 200 KVA required to run the whole system which involves a cable car as well as a chairlift.

The management purchased the generator even though it failed the test run twice before its installation, official documents seen by The Express Tribune reveal.

However, some officers in the management insisted on its installation and managed to get the machine passed on technical grounds on the third count.

A major reason behind the generator’s failure is said to be its over capacity.

“The manufacturing firm was sent a quotation by the TDCP management for provision of a 550 KVA generator. But it was not in stock so the firm suggested a 750 KVA generator with a guarantee that it will work properly,” said a senior official of TDCP Patriata.

He said within the first week of its installation the system tripped. “The situation was conveyed to the management in Lahore but no one took it seriously,” he added.

Since then tripping of the cable car system was a continuous feature of the Patriata chairlift system and on Tuesday it went off for nearly two hours creating a bad situation for the management.

The official said as the overpowered generator was installed it also increased the running cost of the system including fuel consumption and maintenance which was then passed on to tourists in the form of a fee increase from Rs350 to Rs400 in October 2014.

‘All is well’

Talking to The Express Tribune, TDCP Patriata manager Raza Khan blamed the extreme weather behind the generator’s fault.

“It was a normal fault, removed in almost two hours, and it occurred due to distortion in system owing to exceeding humidity in the air,” Khan said.

He rejected the impression that the generator had not been functioning properly since its installation.

When asked about the two failed test results before installation, Khan said different engineers had different opinions about the same machine.

However, he did not give any answer as to why a generator with a capacity of 750 KVA is installed for a system designed to work on a load of 550 KVA.

Khan said they have an annual maintenance agreement with the firm and their experts are due in the coming days to upgrade it.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2015.