KATHMANDU, July 2:
Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has decided to include an expert from either the Ministry of Energy, Institute of Engineering (IoE) and Nepal Bureau of Standard and Metrology (NBSM) in its inspection team to visit manufacturers of transformers and their testing labs.
“NEA took the decision after its engineers showed reluctance to be a part of the inspection teams saying that they lack expertise and necessary equipment to conduct inspections, Laxman Agrawal, board member of NEA, said.
NEA will soon select half a dozen members for the inspection teams. They will be asked to conduct design test (every part are unfolded and inspected) of sample transformers in Central Power Research Institute of India to gauge the quality of transformers produced by LTC Holdings of Sri Lanka.
The power utility awarded the contract to supply 1,040 units of transformers of different capacities to LTC Holdings on May 30. As per the contract, LTC Holdings will start supplying the transformers from the last week of October. NEA will pay the total amount in US dollar ($2 million) and local currency (Rs 3.51 million)
This is the first transformer procurement decision made by NEA the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed corruption cases against around a dozen NEA engineers involved in such inspections. Likewise, over a dozen NEA staffers, including former managing director Rameshwor Yadav, are being tried at the Special Court for corruption amounting to millions of rupees.
Officials involved in the procurement told Republica that all the transformers supplied by LTC Holdings would be tested at NEA´s lab station in Hetuada. Previously, there was no practice of testing the quality of transformers in Nepal.
Source : Republica
