ASSOCHAM has expressed its serious concern on imposition of a two-day compulsory power holiday for the industries in the State of Telangana. While all the segments of the industry will bear the impact, the small scale units will face death knoll, its Secretary General D S Rawat warned.

Increase in the cost of production would result in loss of competitiveness following use of alternative energy sources by some industries, and disruptions in the production schedules would impact SMEs’ supply commitments.

Ultimately this would lead to job loss of up to 50 per cent in the factory sector. In view of the impending economic loss and labour unrest, the State Government must immediately explore the opportunities to normalise power situation, the Chamber suggested.

The State should urgently tap non-conventional energy sources such as wind power generation and solar photovoltaic. The total capacity of solar systems installed so far is insignificant as compared to the potential. Even, of the sanctioned projects only a fraction of them were installed.

Assocham said Telangana needs to focus on improvement of its power sector. It needs to exploit the abundant coal reserves, bridge the shortfall to industries and encourage private sector to increase generation capacity.

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