Solution to power crisis is industry's biggest expectation

The industry in Tamil Nadu puts ending the power crisis as its top most expectation from the AIADMK government that will soon take charge.

The several industry leaders that Business Line spoke to today underlined the difficulties experienced by factories in the State, especially in areas other than Chennai and its neighbourhood, due to the acute shortage of power. The State, which has not added a megawatt of capacity in the last ten years, is suffering a 2000 MW of peak time shortage.

“The power situation is a major issue,” says Mr T.T. Ashok, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry-Southern Region. While there are “no easy solutions”, Mr Ashok wants the government to fast-track ongoing projects.

Indeed, the gravity of the situation is felt most in places like Tiruchi, where a booming demand for fabrication is unavailable to the units — most of them small and medium scale — because of the shortage of power.

However, even more than the industry which manages by using captive power, it is the small businesses — a photo copying shop here or an ice-cream vendor there — that bear the brunt of power shortage.

In the current year, at least 2,300 MW of generation capacity will be added in the State, and at least as much in 2012, but supply is expected to trail demand for several years to come.

The industry has a few other expectations too from the new government. Infrastructure, of course, is a perennial crib, but there are other pressing demands such as re-skilling people of the State.

Mr N.K. Ranganath, Chairman of CII-Tamil Nadu, wants a well spread-out growth.

Although Tamil Nadu is “far better than other States”, growth is still concentrated in a few pockets, he observes.

Other expectation that many industrialists articulated is the speeding-up of the Chennai airport expansion project and the greenfield airport project at Sriperumbudur, near the State capital.