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Memories of My First T/L Project NOSTALGIA

ENGINEERING MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
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WARSAK KHARIAN 132 KV DOUBLE CIRCUIT T/L WAPDA was created just one year before my graduation was due and became the largest employer of electrical engineers. So I decided to visit a friend of mine, late Engr. Ezaz Masroor, appointed as shift engineer in Chicho-ki-Malian Hydal Power Station built by a Yougolave Company and see working conditions there. I went in the control room in the night and stayed there out of curiosity. Suddenly there was a loud roar in the machine room and all lights went out. I was scared and did not remember the way out. Then some one called Mr. Masroor who switched on DC auxiliary. Then came the WAPDA Resident Engineer, and the whole of staff gathered round him wanting to know the reason. He could not guess. Then somebody called the yougoslave engineer. He went right to the operator and asked for logs. He looked at a reading and asked for the log of prvious shift, and the previous, always putting his finger on a particular entry. Till he found that the temperature of a the thrust bearing of machine#2 was rising continously indicating impeding trouble. WAPDA was keeping these logs without even looking at them.The repair staff immediately started to open the machine under the leadeship of this Yougoslave. It was that time that I decided to join a private company and learn as much as I can and be like that yougoslav, so that people listen to me carefully when I say something on my trade. And ALHAM-DO-LILLAH, I got the taste of that position. As I graduated from The then Punjab College of Engineering and technology in Sept., 1959, I was appointed in Imperial Electric Company Construction Which now became ICC (PVT) LIMITED. Here I served for almost 50 years. My letter of appointment was issued by Mr. S. A. Mannan, Director Technical. He passed away today (Nov. 7, 2009). May Allah give him a place in heavens that is peacful and comfortable. His passing away reminds me of the interview, taken by Late Mr. S. A. Mannan. One day in Sept. 1959, I was walking near Cherring Cross, Lahore that a friend, Late Abdul Hameed, my class fellow told me that IMPERIAL is looking for engineers and that I should immediately go there for interview. Imperial office was nearby. I walked into it and requested for interview. Mr. Mannan gave me a written test- derivation of sag-tension equation. In college it was not part of our transmission line teachings, but was dealt in Mathematics course. I derived the equation easily. But Mr. Mannan wanted the usual parabolic equation, which could have been easily obtained by using the expension series
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x y c cosh c
But I could not recall this expension series.
x2 x4 y c 1 ..... 2!c 2 4!c 4
To cut the story short Mr. Mannan gave me a mistyped equation and using dimensions, I corrected it to I passed the interview and was appointed. I was asked to join after my final examination result is out. My appointment letter and then the retirement letter are included in this worksheet.
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By the time I joined, the project was in full swing. Conditions at site were treacherous and engineers were not looked upon as real contributers to daily progress. In fact some foremen thought WE were a positive hinderence. Next few months, I had the difficult task of making a place on the job. Three of the my four colleagues, who were also my class fellows left for other departments. And I decided to continue. I am left with a small document giving some information of this first project (my first and Imperial's first). Here I share with you some information. Believe it or not, like Shrelock holmes used to say to Dr. Wattson,"Elementary my dear". I also consider that project ELEMENTARY. The industry has improved a lot since then. But as a rule, it is only when you know them, things seem elementary. But In 1959, I did not meet many in Pakistan who knew anything of Transmission Line engineering and even now there are not many who has the required know how. Mr. S.A. Mannan, Mr Shafique A. Siddiqi, my then Chief Engineer was among the few Mr. Stuban of BBC was a technical advisor to ICC and a good Transmission Line Engineer. I started my learning from him. As the luck would have it, I had to do sag-tension computations right away, then using my slide rule on all the transmission lines built by the company, even if I was not the project manager. The above equation does not take into account the elastic properties, nor it takes into account the changes of temperatures and loads. For that I had to spend my lifetime doing the job again and again. In my workbook ST1-Sag-Ten-Cat .xlsx. I have put togather a proof for which I had to refresh first 9 chapters of my Math (currently I have Thomas/Finney 8th. Edition). On top of it, I watched DVD courses of the Teaching Company, by Prof. Bruce H. Edwards, 36 lectures of half hour duration. I am also taking up a self teaching course on calculus by Prof. Edward Burger, titled Thinkwell Calculus course on 5 CDs. WAPDA, The Pakistani power utility aquired a mainframe computer and hired American consultants to train there engineers for transmission line design (M/S Harza). That was around 1969. Consultants wrote a little fortran IV program to compute sag/Tensions. By 1984, ICC had an HP85 microcomputer using HP BASIC. I learnt a bit of BASIC and thought, I was good enogh to write programs. But all that I achieved was building the sag-tension cubic equation manually and solving it by hit and trial on the computer. It is then that I found out, from WAPDA engineers that actually Newton-Raphson technique is required to make the solution automatic. As HP85 was not accessible to me whole time, I had to write the same program on a CASIO 802P. I had to accommodate the code in just 1 KB of memory. In fact I succeeded to save one byte of memory to spare. This program, latter was ported to IBM Basica and used on my home PC XT. I was introduced to FRAMEWORK by Engr. Imran Mufti of NESPAK (latter he joined ICC and now is in US) andEngr. AZHAR BHATTI encouraged and helped me to do engineerng with FRAMEWORK. latter Engr. Javed Shafiq introduced me to VISICALC. When I got AMSTRAD I was introduced to CALCSTAR by a financial consultant Mr. Talat Mahmood. Latter my company made the LOTUS as mandatory. I did not like this and rebelled to continue with the FRAMEWORK.with XL, things have change a lot. We don't need computer programs for problems of such simple nature and scope. And calculators need a lot of attention and house keeping. So MS EXCELL is the answer. That is what I am trying to demonstrate here in this book.
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row 190 The Warsek-Kharian 132 kv line was 204 km long and traversed almost all terain types including rugged dry mountains of Peshawer, Plain agricultral lands of Punjab and clay hills of Kharian. If one walks in this so called broken area, the view on all sides is so similar that one can easily be lost. The indus river crossing near Nowshera, was the first crossing strung using rockets. The Jhelum river crossing was almost walkable as MANGLA DAM was under construction and river flow was diverted out of site. Towards the end of project, we were working round the clock to meet the schedule. An interesting memory about completion of the project is that the client requested us to make a continuity test and after discussion, it was agreed to use a Meggar Earth tester, while one circuit of the line was energised. The Meggar was burnt but the team headed by myself returned alive. No bodyhad realised that 204 km long transformer could induce large voltage on the dead circuit. Sometimes unneccessary enthuazism can demand a high price. And remember, best available transmission Line Engineers both at ICC and with the client WAPDA were on the job. It was Mr. Stuban, who predicted that either the machine or the team can come back alive. On my safe return, he offered chees sandwitches and coffey in his house- a delicacy I tasted for the first time and developed a taste for the rest of my life, commemorating this incidence.
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Date Reported for Duty at Peshawar Length of Service works out to:
September 20, 1959 17481 Days
Retired 47 years
July 31, 2007 10 months
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Memories of WARSAK KHARIAN 132 KV DOUBLE CIRCUIT T/L
If you want to refresh the wounds of your chest i.e. heartaches
you must read again and agan this old story of love . Following little stories are included to provide motivation to young engineers. They are not meant to give adverse publicity to the employer or my colleagues. They only describe the circumstances that did not seem to help me at that time but proved a good instrument for learning-though the hard way. They demonstrate that perseverance does pay in the end. Since these memories are from a time far in the past and I am old now, there order may not be strictly chronological and some details may have been fogged by the time, yet I find them quite encouraging even now. At the time when it was happening, it seemed a great pain and injustice. I may have even justified to complain and the employer may seem to be ignoring me but it ultimately polished me and I came out shining as gold. Even gold has to go into the crucible and fire and take beating and hammering or cutting by saws to get shaped into ornaments. The gain may not have been linear but certainly was incremental in the positive direction. So here they are: 1-First day at the CAMP Near Radio Pakistan Peshawar Antenas: As I got down the train at Peshawar Railway station in the third week of Sep., 1959, I started thinking how to reach IMPERIAL CAMP that was 4 miles out near Radio Pakistan Transmitter. I found Tongas waiting outside the station. One man agreed to take me to the camp. When we had travelled about 4 miles and the transmitter was visible, I saw a labour camp on the roadside. So I got down and talked to a gentleman wearing a sola hat. Latter I learnt his name was M. Siddique and he was an electrician. He told me in a simple tone to go ahead 200 yards and turn right on the katcha track. His estimate was very exact and talk was precise. I got at the camp and was greeted by my class fellow, Sh. Riaz, who had joined IMPERIAL a month ago. I felt lucky to have a friend around. It was almost evening and I had my stuff on the roadside. I looked around and found a bed in an empty tent. With the help of Sh. Riaz, I dragged the bed outside on the road and slept. Soon came a chawkidar, latter I learnt his name to be MEWA KHAN- the very first employee at the camp, and gave me company for all of my stay at the camp in Peshawar, and latter n Jhangi near Rawalpindi. He simply lifted the bed form one side and dropped me on the ground without even a warning. Getting up I asked him the reason and he said, "You are not allowed. Go and take permission". Well he was right. I went to the Chief Erection Engineer, Mr. Shafiq A. Siddiqi who confirmed my ineligibility and asked me to arrange my own bed. He, however gave permission for one night but sleep on the roadside. Next morning Sh. Riaz told me he had resigned from service and was leaving the camp next day and that I could buy his charpoya not perfect rectangular frame woven with very rough string of twisted date leaves with big holes. I had to pay Rs. 8.00. That I did promptly and became a proud owner of a bed. 2-First Interview at the CAMP: Around 10 AM, I was called for interview with the Chief Erection Engineer Mr. Shafiq A. Siddiqi. He asked for my preferred job description. I prefered a design job. He told me there was none in the company but expected in about 5 years. He further emphasized that, a young engineer must first get trained in the field of construction. Latter I learnt that he had actually rejected me as I was too tender to handle illiterate and rogh pathaan labour in the field, and was actually waiting for answer from head office. 3-First Design Assignment: A few days passed and comes our German Chief Engineer, Mr. H. Stubhan in the drawing tent. He gave me a few printed forms. He gave me some data on spans and asked me to compute sag for some sections of the transmission line. In the evening he checked my work and gave me more. Then it became a routine to get the sag assignment every day. The output would be used in the field on the transmission line stringing, which was still around Peshawar. 4-A Rainy Night: Soon I was assigned a tent (It had the prestigous name of Miniature Swiss Cottage) to three of us- Myself, Ch. A. Lateef and M. Rafee. row 60 The tent was pitched at a low lying area with thick grass growing almost one and a half foot tall. We had no choice except to live there. One night it rained very heavily. Almost at midnight One of the wooden pegs on my side was pulled out and the portion of the tent fell on me. I cried for help but my room mates argued, it was not on their side. So I must fix it myself. Then I called help from our shared cook, Mr. Khan. He arguedto the effect that it was beyond his job description. My self had no idea of a tent but got out and did improve things somewhat, getting wet in the process. 5-A long walk in a Rainy day: Preparatory to start of stringing work, we were all put on checking towers and getting them tightened with missing parts fixed. They will carry us on a truck and drop at intervals along the line, then at the end of our job we would walk to our appointed places on a nearby road, from where the truck would collect us. One evening the truck driver forgot to collect me. That was a time of no mobile phones and I had no way to contact my camp. So decided to walk about 7 miles to the camp as it rained, reaching around 9pm in winter. The amazing thing that comes to my mind NOW is that I did not make a complaint.
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6-A visit to stringing site: Stringing on the line had started for the plain area leaving first 21 towers on hills near WARSAK. Mr. Stubhan took the three of us and dropped us at the road, just beyond a large graveyard. He disappeared on a pretext and without telling us anything. So we were at our own. Mr. Rafee decided to clean a patch of grassy place, spread his nice handkerchief and carefully sit on it without damaging the crease of his trousers and watched in empty space. Mr. Lateef climbed on a tower and sat on the cross arm, enjoying the breeze. I noticed the workers struggling with the wire (ACSR Conductor). It was being pulled by a tractor. The tractor was going on a zigzag way, thus making the multiple wires tied behind it to change places along the width of right of way, making the crew run around almost at random. Not knowing the process I asked them as to what was the problem. Taking me as a simple bystander, they almost ridiculed me and said with a touch of authority in their voice,"BAA-OO (brief for BAABOO) these wires are made of aluminum, that is very soft and can be easily damaged by rubbing with stones and pebbles so abundant in the graveyard. We are here to protect them. But as the tractor changes the path, these wires change their places in the graveyard too. I watched for a few moments and then realized that they were standing at a low point most of the time, making it very hard to exert a pull the wires out of harm's way. I told them one by one that they better stand at a high point and demonstrated them how easy it was to exert force on them. That influenced them so much that soon they were accepting my commands and I had become their virtual foreman. I was shouting instructions to change places of individual men, soon I learned some names and also helped myself pull the wires out of the way. These wires carry a black rust and so my dress ad face and hands were all smudged with black rust. At that point in time, Mr. Stubhan returned and took us back to the camp. Latter, I learnt that their was a meeting last night, discussing to send me back, considering me unsuitable for the stringing crew. Infact Mr. Shafiq had assigned Ch. Lateef to the stringing crew, and argued that assigning me to the big crew will result in slowed progress and indiscipline (in his opinion, I was too tender to control a large workforce). Then the stringing crew exceeded 150 workers in number. Mr. Stubhan, who had been giving me assignments for sag calculations, had asked for one chance to see my usefulness. So he had done the experiment as described above. On return he advocated for my assignment to the main stringing crew, describing what he had seen on site. But Mr. Shafiq did not agree. Then he suggested to assign me to a proposed new tension stringing crew. But they did not have skilled workers, and I was totally new to the process. There was a German erector already at site. His name was Horst Scondo. I got a chance for good trainig with this expert. One bad habit with him was swearing, but the good thing was it was all in German language. 7-Erection of Difficult Towers: In order to get more progress per month, the main erection crew had left some special towers, such as 20 feet extensions and towers located at hillsides. Some of the towers that were already erected in hilly portion had some pieces stolen by the local population. A small crew was created under me to do this job, without disturbing the main crew. We were dropped by a truck for the day on the bottom of a hill. The crew would hand carry the tower piece by piece. We would then erect the towers piece by piece. It took very long, but the crew was small. The truck would take us back in the night. One day we took all material to hill top and started assembling the tower. We found error of drilling in main legs such that we could not proceed with the tower beyond 10-20 feet. As we had no independent transport and there was no communication with the base camp, we lost the day. I learned the lesson that we should look for drilling errors before we get the material to site. As we used to start early in the morning, this checking had to be done after 9:00 pm the previous day. I took out my kerosine oil Lantern (there was no electricity) and a torch and invited the store keeper and the foreman to check the material. Both sent me a message that they were off duty and would not join. So I had no choice except to do it myself. As I was busy rather clumsily in the mud on the roadside, a big Chevrolet car stopped nearby and honked. I was so engrossed in my job that I did not notice. So the driver got out of the car and reminded me to clear the way. This car carried out Director Technical Mr. S. A. Mannan from Lahore. Latter he called me and asked for the reason. When I gave him the story, he was happy. So my services were confirmed early. 8-Getting stomach infections: Our work day was usually from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm and occasionally longer if something went wrong on site. We were usually drinking water from watercourses meant to water the fields. In the area approximately from Peshawer-Warsak road to Peshawar Mardan road, there were corn fields and villagers were very kind to sometimes provide us with bread made from corn and Lassi (made by churning yoghurt and removing butter from it) courtesy PATWARI of WAPDA, who could negotiate with the land owners for damages to crops and trees, sometimes not giving them any benefit. While travelling we could buy CHAPAL KABAAB from famous places such as BAKHSHU-PULL. Swarms of bees would be seen flying to BAKSHU-PULL and some of them would end up being crushed with the beef easily. In the presence of half crushed spices of various types one could not discern the flies from spices or beef. The combined effect was that I got amoebic dysentery, which now stays with me permanently. There were no hygienic latrines in the camp and that was a source of such diseases. Some of the camp area, particularly where my tent was pitched was low and would easily get contaminated water entering my food chain. It was a very big price to pay. 9-Making of a new stringing crew: In order to complete the missing part of stringing on hills near WARSAK, my company set up a new crew comprising Mr. Horst Scondo, Mr. Noor Husain, officially a cook but had experience as a fitter in the past, was setup. WARSAK dam project was in full swing those days. At the main gate of the secured area one could see hundreds of laborers waiting for job daily. The subcontractors working inside the secured area were able to recruit laborers form this pool. So It was proposed to recruit 10-15 unskilled workers every day. The number could be changed as per daily requirements. So I would recruit workers in the morning, work all day and pay them off at the gate every evening. These people were local pathans and Pashto was the only language they knew. And I was not knowing that language at all. The driver of the Ford truck that we used as transport was a pathan (probably named Tawaab Khan). I bought the first primer of Pashto and used to take help from him and my shared cook to pick up some useful words. And to practice I would use the words in actual operation. Slowly and slowly our crew picked up speed and soon we were using the first tension stringing equipment in Pakistan. I became an expert and at the end of this section was transferred to the main crew, which was at Nowshera by then and Ch. Lateef had resigned to join WAPDA, from where he retired as General Manager. Mr. Rafee had also resigned to join Pakistan Switch gear from which he retired as Managing Director.
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10-Stupidity or in-experience or both: First job for the new stringing crew was to string earth wire, which would be used as communication media for the tension stringing operation. For this purpose we were given, what was called earth wire rollers. They consisted of a steel frame with an extended tongue to be bolted to tower top with a steel pulley block mounted on an axle in the frame, a split pin holding the pulley from falling off the axle. As I had no prior experience, nor Mr. Noor Haussain had any expertise, we together mounted the pulley with head down. Our logic was that this way, earth wire can be pulled through and will not fall off the pulley. When we started pull wire across the first pulley, Mr. Scondo noted it and was mad at us. So he ordered us to rectify all. As the only "skilled" people were myself and Noor Husain, we took down the first pulley and started walking down towards the other end of wire that was several towers ahead. On way we would meet more pulleys also to be carried along to the end. When Mr. Scondo saw that he was mad like hell. Not knowing English, he started swearing in German. With some difficulty we realized that the split pin could be removed from the axle on each tower-top and the pulley reversed right at the tower top. 11-We all three resign: As things were getting too difficult and no thoughtfulness was forthcoming from IMPERIAL, we all decided to resign. Our work-days were too long and there was no weekly holiday. I got no hair cut since my reporting to this camp for about two and a half months. No arrangement for shower was available and cold whether put a barrier on even washing our faces as no hot water could be found. At least my demand was a more decent treatment to us. Mr. Stubhan took me sight-seeing starting with a decent breakfast and ending with a nice lunch. He all the times tried to impress on me the fact that everywhere young engineers are treated like this and this was the only way to get into the profession and earn expertise. I agreed but wanted some self respect and a definite place in the organization, where I could see my future carier. I was not really looking for a lot of money. So I was assured my demands and I stayed back. Other two engineers did not believe in IMPERIAL and their promises and so left. For the rest of my carrier I kept the same principles- Honor and dignity, self respect and integrity and not going for big money. Hard work was my motto throughout and I never needed supervision. Whether some body was watching or not, I would work as per my conscience. I hope my employer also had such thoughts and considerations for me, though they did not demonstrate the same on my retirement. This time they did not succeed to persuade me to become an advisor as I thought my self- respect was being compromised. But I keep high opinion for my superiors and colleagues, and one way to assure it was to keep out of the dirty water and avoide all splashes and spill overs. 12-Taking charge of the main stringing crew: One fine afternoon, Mr. Shafiq asked me to ride in his Foxy as he was going to Nowshera. On way he briefed me about the main stringing crew and the role I must play in its operation. He dropped me outside a Miniature Swiss Tent and told me that he will send my Charpoy and other personal effects through an available truck-trip. It was very cold. This tent belonged to Ch. Lateef, who, latter I learnt had resigned and left. The Forman of the stringing crew had removed all accessories from the tent and it was just an empty space. It was too cold and I had to keep awake, shivering and without food all night. I got my personal effects the next day. The Forman did not like me and wanted to work without an engineer. I was too soft to quarrel with him and to get the tent accessories back. In those times, engineers were not looked upon as important and even the Chief Erection Engineer did not do jusice to the engineering community. I simply lived with what ever I had as personal belongings. As I already mentioned I was doing sag calculations extreme involvement in tension stringing operation, Mr. Stubhan was doing his own calculations for this crew.. That day, I did the calculations myself and next rumor that I heared from the foreman was that because of my computations a tension tower cross arm fell down. The foreman made huge noise and complained to Mr. Shafique that the "new boy" had made wrong calculations and not only destroyed a couple of cross-arms but also retarded his operation. Mr. Stubhan was sent to the camp, who "confiscated" my computations and checked himself. He did not find anything wrong. Then he took me to site and inspected the broken pieces. What he discovered was amazing. Angles were cracked at holes,where X-arms are attached to the main leg of the tower, during punching by the manufacturer (Karachi Shipyard). Then it got rusted and then it was galvanized without cleaning. The tell-tale rust was still showing at the crack. Accordingly complaint was made and material got replaced. As the time passed I became more and more knowledgeable in the stringing procedure and then for somepoint in time I became indispensable. But I never encashed my position. 13-Night stay on Road at Attock Bridge Closes: Attock Jail has become very famous or notorious with Mian Nawaz Sharif lodged there. The bridge used to be closed at evening and reopen in the morning. One of my duties was to petrol the line from one end to the other before commissioning. I had assembled a crew and would distribute them along the rout and collect them in the evening, never forgetting any worker. The line was about 204 miles long and It would take quite some days to do it. Instead of wasting time in daily return to camp, I used to carry a DAREE in the truck. Wherever, it was evening, we would find a road side TANOOR, eat our dinner and sleep on the road side with all the crew. One of such stay was at Attock as we reached it a little late. I recal the TANOOR owner, aold lady had coocked MAASH KI DAAL for that evening. I like it very much. 14-The Hazro Factor: Our line passed through anear called Hazro. There was a transposition tower here and a lot ofsmaller lines to cross over. So a lot of time was spent in the area. I got ill and was admitted to Holly Family Hospital. Dr. asked me for my place of work and I told him Hazro. He immediately ordered tests for Hookworms. And lo! And behold! they were there. He told me this infection was endemic to the area. He said one needs to protect one's feet avoid sand getting into shoes. Contact with sand transfers the parasite that is finally lodged in the intestines. 15-The-Story of Survey I recall, while in college, only one period of survey with a theodolite was assigned to our class and I was not in the class. So all my knowledge about the theodolite was "Bookish". Our project included towers near Rawalpindi airport just shor of the then TOPI PARK. Ten or twelve special low height double circuit towers with horizontal configuration were designed and arrived late at site. Their foundations were concreted already. The German engineer, Mr. Stubhan asked me to survey the site before tower erection. He braought a WILD theodolite at site. I was surprised to see its circle graduated in 400 (grades). I always tought that since the time of EUCLID, a circle had 360 degrees. It took me some orientation to be comfortable with it with the help of my trainer. Finaly he left the site to me and, as the luck would have it, I found an accesss length of 100 feet. When it was plotted on profile, it became known that the clearence in the semi hilly terrain fell short of the specified and since towers were already at site, the only remedy was to raise the level of foundation. New stubs were obtined and I was assigned to making foundations. I had not handled concrete before and had some tough time. Any how the tower was concreted and the section completed by my crew, that was sitting idle all those days while survey was finalised.
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16-The Story of wife of a General General Azhar was the health minister in Aiyub Khan's Martial regeme. He had built a house in the area of special towers. When we erection of aa tower near his house, we were stopped. I was instructed to see the wife of the general and settle the issue. It was long evening of arguments at her house. Final she took me to site to emphasize her point of view. She showed me the limits of her property and clearly the tower was out of that. In fact she suggested we bring the tower closer to the house. I was surprised and asked is it not better that we stay away. She then had to disclose her real motive. She wanted the tower to be built a litlle closer to her house, in a small lot belonging to a poor man. By having the tower built there, she could ensure the view of her house and avoid a rather a bad looking construction by this poor owner. She could have solved the problem by offering this poor man a good price and solve her problem permanently. Instead she wanted to use the terror of martial law. But certainly there was no way to divert the line as new towers could notbe imported.But realising the motive, I told her that I will contact my head office and try to do something. I told my chief engineer that we sholud erect this tower during night, when she is unaware as now we know the real problem. We made arrangements and one night we were done. 17-The Story of a two stroke German Tractor On our first job, we never could have sufficient resources and were always hard pressed with make shift arrangement. Our tractor was damaged beyong repairs and a German two stroke huge tractor was acquired, probably with the assistance of BBC. But by now we had no body to operate it. So I took the cockpit and used to daily take my staff in a trolly attached behind it to site and after reaching there, used to pull wires with it. So my working was split between supervision of the main crew and helping the advance crew to pull earthwire ahead. This was a strong machine but very noisy. Moreover since we had to mix the lube oil with diesel, and the exhaust was in front of the operator, lube oil spray was constantly smudging the face. In a few weeks we had a very good operator, Mr. Ghula Haider (That is what I recall) a retiree from Afrika, who used to drive with a three piece suit on, and naturally the suit would get smudged. Now I realise the msitake that we were making. Besides it was a health hazard. 18-Of personal values: My Moral Dilema: As I worked on the project with full control, I had gained good experience but I noted that I was not getting a satisfying salary. So naturally, I started looking for jobs elswhere. I got a good proposal to count on, But I had a moral dilema. I had become a very important person on the project. Everything seemed to work like a clock with me in control. I was also training all sort of staff for a possible expansion. Even if another project had to be started, we could manage to split the crews but there was no "Engineer Incharge". I had a trainee, Mr. Akhtar but he was not serious to continue. If I had also left Icc, and there would be no engineer, things would revert to foreman eraThe same as the company started with. I thoght it would not be fair to leave this company in the middle of their project. I knew, if I resigned I would get again a pay raise as I got in the beginning. But that was not morally acceptible to me and certainly would not get me a good reputation. Syed Zahid Ussain (May Allah grant him maghfirat ): As the luck would have it, one evening. Mr. Shafiq siddiqi brought a young engineer in his foxy from Rawalpindi and left with me for training at my camp at Dina. This was Syed Zahid Hussain, with whome latter I became so attached that untill his death (23rd. April 1993). We were always together on projects and traveled together abroad. In fact we shared a room in the head office and during training at camp Dina we shared the same bed, as he did not bring his for quite a few weeks, as he would not get time off just like myself. Latter, when he became independent project incharge, I would visit him and had to be lodged in the same bed, because there were no spare beds around. Company was still not providing personal furniture to engineers, except very shaky folding chairs and tables. The strangest thing that happens to me that in my dreams I meet him almost weekly and sometimes daily. We discuss many personal matters and in fact that is the time when I complain to him of the ill behaviour of the company to me. When he was alive, he was usually shielding me from the brunt. He was a sincere freind. At the end of this article, I am giving a copy of his letter which he wrote from Dacca. This letter constantly reminds me of his sweet company. May Allah raise his darajaat in heaven .Amen! His training at DINA Camp was really on the fast track and on my advice he was tested by Mr. Shafique by giving him a section of the same line, with camp at RAJAR. Not only he performed very well, but also his inner qualities were now visible. He displayed good administrative ability, nack to develop new relationships, with customer and people with influence. He was always smiling and would confront with various crisis or even desasters. He had displayed extra ordinary ability to get things moving. I thought I could easily leave the project in safe hands. He showed a lot of understanding and gave me my due respect all his life, even when he was promoted a step above me.In a way he climbed many steps above me but I was content with my field of expertese. We were always together for our professional duties and every body understood the complementary role, we were playing. Somehow, I was never able to get a fair share of financial returns from my company. Thus at camp Dina I confided in him my secret wish of leaving the company and asked if he can take the training seriously which of course he did as explained above. He took a lot of beating as was the custom of good trainers. In fact he proved a good student and established my credentials as a teacher. Latter in my life I would train sons of senior directors of the company as well as numerous young engineers, now in good positions in their respective fields. As I was readying to leave, Mr. Shafiq took him back for making a short 132kv T/L to supply the new Capital Islamabad, under construction. Thus I had to complete the project myself and on completion I was transferred to Hyderabad Thermal Project. Now I realise that the company had maneuvered the circumsatnces leading to frustration of my desire to leave.
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That proves things are designed in heavens and we cannot reverse the circumstance. I became content with my destiny. row 290 When Mr. Shafiq rang me up in the middle of night, on April 23, 1993, and informed me that Mr. Zahid had passed away, I could not believe it. I had met him in his office at 8:00 pm, while he was preparing some meeting notes. He reached home late and went to play squash with his kidz. After finishing the game, he was practicing squash just waiting for the kidz to dress up. Then he had a heart attack Kidz found him on the floor. Took him to hospital, where he was declared dead. I could not sleep that night. Next afternoon we burried him in Gulberg under tons of earth. He was indeed , a beautiful soul a friend indeed and I felt being left alone. Whenever I pass his grave, I stop and pray for his Maghfirat. That is the best I can do:
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19-Conclusion: I could go on and on with my little stories. But I did not want to bore my reader and only a small sample should suffice to motivate my young readers to face difficulties encountered in order to establish themselves in the profession. I have witnessed latter generations of engineers,dis-liking to stay in tents or sleep at night on road side or eat at modest places. In fact lately our field engineers are using air conditioned vehicles and travelling scores of miles to come back at their residences at the cost of work suffering. Not only engineers but lower staff also does not like to stay in camps. I felt transmission line construction is more like a military operation. Engineers and staff should stay closer together and to the work for better coordination and planning and that the employer should be a little more generous to respect the field force and provide military like facilities in the field. More importantly he should be aware of factors like Hazro factors and should provide more hygienic and sanitary environment and look after the food and drinking water for employees.
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WARSAK KHARIAN 132 KV DOUBLE CIRCUIT T/L
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03-By Way of Nostalgia

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03-By Way of Nostalgia

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Sheet 1 of 15 107884738.xlsx.ms_office.

Memories of My First T/L Project NOSTALGIA

Original Date: Nov. 7, 2009

x2 x4 y c 1 ..... 2!c 2 4!c 4

Memories of My First T/L Project NOSTALGIA

Original Date: Nov. 7, 2009

Memories of My First T/L Project NOSTALGIA

Original Date: Nov. 7, 2009

Memories of My First T/L Project NOSTALGIA

Original Date: Nov. 7, 2009

September 20, 1959 17481 Days

July 31, 2007 10 months

Memories of My First T/L Project NOSTALGIA

Original Date: Nov. 7, 2009

Original Date: Nov. 7, 2009