Industries in Andhra Pradesh have been starved of power for the last three days. The next three days are the schedule days of declared power holiday in industrial estates around Hyderabad, according to industry bodies.
“From Friday evening we do not have power and all the manufacturing concerns have shut their factories. This is a serious issue as industries will have to totally shut them out as it would not be possible to run them in such a power-less situation. The other option is to step out and set up units in other States,” Devendra Surana, President of the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Fapcci), said.
Describing the situation as unprecedented, he said if it persists these units spread in the 18 industrial areas around Hyderabad will have to close down and lakhs of employees will be jobless.
“Already we face three-day power holiday and most industries look forward to the weekends to run them when there is supply,” he said.
Fapcci represents about 3,000 units. Speaking to Business Line , Surana said, “Our efforts to get in touch with senior Government officials have been in vain as we have run into weekend and Ramzan festival on Monday. There is no word from the Central Power Distribution Company on this barring a statement on Friday.”
“We understand from the industry members that there has been 100 per cent power cut to the industry since the past two days in some parts of the State, which is unacceptable and is creating extreme hardship to the industrial fraternity,” said Suchitra Ella, Chairperson, CII Andhra Pradesh and Joint Managing Director, Bharat Biotech International Ltd.
CII suggestions
The CII has urged the State Government to take immediate action to restore power supply to the industry. There is need to ensure continuous supply of power, particularly for small scale industries for single shift without any interruption, she said.
In dialogue with the Government over the past month, the CII has suggested short-term measures such as reduction of VAT on diesel supplied in bulk to industries for power generation to be reduced to 4 per cent till the scheduled power cuts are lifted.
The State energy demand has shot up yet again in the past few days with a dry spell and supply has come down due to three more units out of the grid due to outages. According to AP Transco, demand has gone up to 275 million units on August 19 and the supply was 275 MUs leaving a gap of 67 MUs. The demand was 260 MU on August 20 and supply was 53 MU.