Nagpur: As many as three officials from Mahatransco has been suspended by State Energy Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule for their callousness which led to a blast in a transformer at Wardha substation leading to the death of a worker. The three are — superintending engineer Sudhir Dhawale (Chandrapur circle), executive engineer Dinesh Tamgadge (Wardha 220 KV substation) and deputy executive engineer Narendra Zode (Wardha 220 KV substation). The decision was announced by the minister while replying to a motion on the issue moved by BJP MLC Anil Sole.
Sole said that a 220 KV transformer in the Wardha substation had caught fire and on September 19 killing a worker. “It had also led to a major disruption on 11 KV feeder. Mahatransco suffered a loss of R2 crore. This would not have happened had Mahatransco installed a fire prevention system. More importantly, the officials did not do maintenance of the transformer properly,” he added.
The MLC claimed that the company had incurred a loss of Rs 839 crores due to fires in such high capacity transformers installed at various places. “In Nagpur division itself there have been 43 such incidents leading to loss of Rs70 crores,” he added.
While replying to the motion, Bawankule said that the transformer was manufactured in 1991 and hence it did not fire prevention devices. “There are many such transformer, which are old. When they get permanently damaged they are replaced by a new transformer. It is not possible for the company to change all the old transformers as it would entail a huge expenditure,” the minister added.
