Power outages hit industries in Faridabad, output dips up to 95%

Bijendra Ahlawat

Faridabad, July 1

The rains may have brought a relief from the heatwave, but these have also disrupted the power supply in several areas.

The situation in industrial areas is worse with many units facing 8-10 hour outages. The Industrial Model Township (IMT), carved out by HSIIDC, is one of the pockets that have suffered the most due to recurring faults and breakdowns, resulting in disruption of the production, some even reporting up to 95 per cent decline in manufacturing.

Though officials blame the power outages on underground cables and a tardy pace of repair, harassed entrepreneurs resorted to protest recently to move them.

IMT Industries Association president Pramod Rana said the relief came after long on Sunday, when some alternative arrangements were made by the department to deal with the issue. “The inadequate supply of power to the industry has become a perennial problem. The situation may aggravate further or improve marginally, but it is far from satisfactory,” says Rajive Chawla, president, Integrated Association of Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises of India. Claiming that eight to nine hours of power disruption has become a routine for the past three months, he said uninterrupted supply continued to remain a dream and the main demand of the industry. Suresh Chander Garg, an industrialist, said the department needed to focus on maintenance and upkeep of the transmission system.

The first downpour on the morning of June 28 resulted in power outages. The supply remained disrupted between 6 and 10 hours in many areas of the city. Naresh Kakkar, SE, DHBVN, said the disruption in power supply could be due to breakdown or faults in the network due to various reasons.