ISLAMABAD
The Board of Directors of National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) have approved the removal of Dr Fiaz A.Chaudhy as Managing Director NTDC and the federal government has endorsed the BOD’s decision.
According to a press statement issued to media on Friday, the Board of Directors of NTDC in its 128th meeting, while adopting procedure under Companies Act 2017 under sections 190(1) and 190(2), unanimously resolved the removal of Dr Fiaz A.Chaudhy as Managing Director NTDC. This was done on him not being in ‘the interest of the company and its business’. The federal government has endorsed the BOD’s decision.
The BOD NTDC while noticing gross lack of professionalism in execution of national projects on a reference moved in the public interest, issued proper show cause notice to the MD and provided ample opportunity as per the set procedure to explain his position. After written reply, the BOD also personally heard the MD.
The BOD noticed that interconnections of main projects of CPEC like 500 kV Port Qasim line, 220 kV Gharo line, 500 kV Rahim Yar Khan-Moro line (3rd Circuit) have not been handled in the proper way where slippage of timeliness has jeopardized the prospects of full transmission of new generation.
Besides that, 132 kV line Patrind hydropower project was also delayed and the company has served notice of damages to the tune of Rs 200 million per month.
Similarly, non-provision of appropriate evacuation for wind projects and generation was found being curtailed resulting in Rs 329 million capacity charges penalties on the power purchaser.
On removal of key system constraints to allow full flow of power in 2017 for which comprehensive exercise was conducted by the Ministry in 2016, the NTDC missed major timelines.
Resultantly, the system witnessed critical shortcomings during the month of Ramzan. The national transmission stabilization remained a major challenge which could not be achieved.
Moreover, situation in southern part of the country was further aggravated resulting in the system collapse on 1st and 2nd Ramzan plunging large parts of southern grid in darkness. The situation was further compounded by the frequent collapse of 500KV circuit towers due to lack of maintenance as per SOPs. The response to restore the system was highly dissatisfactory resulting in discomfort to the consumers.
The NTDC BOD is taking further necessary steps for filling the position of MD as per prescribed rules and procedure and is also making stop-gap arrangement for the interim period.
