Amid incessant rains for the past few days, unscheduled and long hours of power cuts coupled with local faults have badly hit normal life across the State on Monday whereas there was no load shedding as per the tentative power position schedule of the Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCl), citizens had to experience a tough time today due to power supply remaining disrupted for over four hours on Monday.
Apart from the domestic sector, disruption of power supply to the industrial sector has also become a common phenomenon. Providing uninterrupted and cheaper electricity to the industrialists was one of main assurances that the State Government had given to the industrialists. But today the industry sector is in a bad shape on account of poor position of power to the industry, said Ashok Bansal, vice president of the Kumaon Garhwal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KGCCI).
"Poor maintenance of the power substations is also one of the reasons behind the worsening power situation. That is why we demand proper maintenance of the power substations which could solve the power crisis to a large extent," he added. Unscheduled load shedding is the main cause of worry, said the entrepreneurs here, adding that the matter of fact is that following unscheduled power cuts they can’t make even alternative arrangements of power to run the industrial units.
Thus in case of no alternative arrangement for power, industrial works suffer badly causing an adverse impact on production. Therefore, on account of poor industrial production, it has become really difficult for the entrepreneurs to compete with others in the industry sector, they added. The entrepreneurs have also demanded alternative arrangements for connecting the industrial units in SIIDCUl, Pantnagar and Rudrapur with the Kashipur feeder in case of failure of Bareilly power feeder which presently provides power supply to the industries in these areas.
Unlike the heavy scale industry, the mountainous State has been able to attract investment in the small and micro scale industry in hilly and remote areas of the State. But an adverse impact on the growth of the small and micro scale sector can’t be ruled out if the power situation continues to remain disrupted in the State, the entrepreneurs believe.