ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has issued show-cause notice to Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) to initiate legal proceedings for the transformer explosion which claimed 10 lives.

According to the regulatory, upon submission of investigation report by the Investigation Committee constituted by the Authority to investigate the explosion of distribution transformer on July 22, 2021 in Latifabad, Hyderabad resulting in loss of precious human lives and injuries to the general public, it has issued a show cause notice to the Disco.

According to the regulator, Hesco has also been directed to immediately improve its overall distribution network to avoid any such occurrence in future. Hesco has been given fifteen days to respond to the show cause notice after which the Nepra shall decide the matter in accordance with the law.

Earlier, while taking notice of this tragic incident in which 10 died and around 12 were injured, the Authority constituted an Investigation Committee under Section 27A of the NEPRA Act, 1997 to thoroughly investigate the matter in the light of Nepra Laws, Rules and Regulations. The Committee accordingly visited the site of the incident, recorded statements of the residents of the area and investigated the concerned officers/officials of Hesco from July 25-27, 2021. The Committee also carried out postmortem of the damaged/blasted transformer and visited its manufacturing company at Lahore and then presented a detailed report on the basis of which the Authority decided to initiate legal proceedings against Hesco. A National Assembly panel has recommended that the compensation to the victims be given at par with job related fatalities of employees of Discos. Nepra recently, directed Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) to treat general public at par with its employees with respect to compensation.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021