Industries, big and small, downed shutters and both promoters and workers took to the streets here on Friday demanding uninterrupted power supply. The closure is estimated to have caused a production loss of Rs 400 crore.
The city has been witnessing demonstrations for the past few days in different locations by the owners and workers of industrial units.
But the agitation on Friday, held in the Gandhipuram area, which is in the heart of the city, lasted for about three hours and brought to the fore the simmering discontent of the people over the prolonged power cuts that extend up to eight hours a day. There was a mild lathi-charge on demonstrators who had blocked traffic, and about 10 persons were picked up by the police.
Not for confrontation
While the industry associations made it clear that they do not want a confrontation with the Government, they are at a loss to know why no Minister has been deputed to hold discussions with them to find an amicable solution to the festering problem of power shortage; they have had meetings with the TNEB Chairman earlier.
It is not as if Coimbatore industrialists have got into a combative mood only now. Even during the DMK regime, industrial units in the region were closed for a day over unannounced power cuts and the preferential treatment given to Chennai in the duration of power cuts.
But with the problem of power shortage becoming more acute in recent months, the duration of the cuts has increased to 5-6 hours a day. But the situation has worsened in the past few days with the TNEB resorting to nearly eight hours of staggered power cuts in Tamil Nadu, other than Chennai — six hours during the day and two hours in the night. This has had a crippling effect on the industries, particularly power-intensive ones that dominate the Kongu region, the second most industrially developed region in the State.
Power holiday?
Speaking to Business Line , Mr M. Kandhaswami, President, Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, said that last month in a letter to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms J. Jayalalithaa, he had highlighted the plight of the industries because of the unscheduled power cut. He made a suggestion that to overcome the problem temporarily, a power holiday (staggered holiday) may be imposed in each region in the State for a day or two every week on turn basis.
He regretted that at the political level, the problems of the industries of Coimbatore region have not drawn sufficient attention.
Mr Kandhaswami said the prolonged power cuts have hit the functioning of the smaller units, affecting not only the quality of products manufactured but also added to the costs. The use of generators has pushed up the production cost as captive power costs about Rs 16/unit compared to TNEB's Rs 4-5.50/unit.
Mr Mahendra Ramdas, President, Tamil Nadu Electricity Consumers Association (TECA), Coimbatore, said LT consumers preferred cut in maximum demand (MD) from the current 20 per cent to 40-50 per cent and assured supply of balance power
He said bigger units outsourced components from smaller ancillaries that could not use generators because of space problems. This affected component supply to, and output from, bigger units. The continuous process industries and big spinning mills faced problems because the production processes were stopped suddenly and work interruptions caused delay and loss.
He estimated that the one-day shutdown of industries in the city may cause a production loss of about Rs 400 crore and the revenue loss to the exchequer, both the Central and the State, may be 20 per cent of this.
Market share
Mr Ramdas was hopeful that the problem might ease by mid-June when the wind power generation would pickup and efforts of the Government to streamline and augment power production may bear fruit. But there was a danger of Coimbatore losing its market share because of power famine in sectors such as pumps and motors, auto components, and spinning. Already, spinning mills in Andhra Pradesh have been able to wean away business from Coimbatore because of power availability there, he said.
Mr J. James, District President, Tamil Nadu Association of Cottage and Micro Enterprises (TACT), Coimbatore, said that about 3,500 members of his association had closed their units on Friday. He put the production loss suffered by his association members at about Rs 60 crore.