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Industrialists demand uninterrupted power supply

By Moonis Ahmed

KARACHI: Industrialists and small businessmen have urged the government to immediately install rental power plants in order to properly cope up with the power crisis, which is halting industrial production in the country.

Each city zone (residential and commercial) is undergoing two hours of load shedding. Starting from early morning there are three to four cycles of load shedding a day, which means that each zone is undergoing six to eight hours of load shedding every day, industry sources said on Saturday.

Chairman SITE Association of Industry (SAI) M A Jabbar said that load shedding was a big problem for the industries. Adviser to the PM on Finance Shaukat Tareen had repeatedly mentioned coping up with the energy crisis by resolving the problems during his visit to Karachi, he said.

KESC retains 1,200MW capacity, which shows that the KESC has enough installed capacity, which is not being utilised. "KESC intends to use gas instead of oil, which is one of the many problems why power production falls short in Karachi. The government should pressurise KESC to increase and deploy its full power production capacity," he urged.

Jabbar was of the view that rental power plants are the only economically feasible option for fast track process to grapple with the current power crisis. Investment comes where the atmosphere is secure and infrastructure is sound; investors are very sensitive to the political instability in Pakistan; "Our country is severely hit by terrorism, militancy, and other various problems."

The government should take concrete measures to stabilise the economy for short and medium-term, he urged. Besides, witnessing a decline of 20 percent in production losses, industries in Pakistan are closing down owing to serious crises including high interest rates, power shortage and high cost of production, he said. "Today there are some 10 to 20 percent industries only in SITE industrial zone which are on the verge of closure," he observed.

Load shedding in the city has peaked to 10-12 hours but KESC claims there has been only eight hours of power outage, divided in 4 cycles in 24 hours.

President KCCI, Anjum Nisar told Daily Times that the power crisis has caused up to 25 percent of small businessmen to shut their business down because the combined attack of load shedding.

He said that the textile sector is under serious threat of financial crisis as more than 25 percent of foreign orders have been cancelled so far. The level of damage to industrialists and businessmen cannot be calculated because the moral degradation after cancellation of international orders is large and cannot be quantified.

Shopkeepers at major markets in the city, including Saddar, Hyderi, Zamzama and Jodia Bazar, are facing colossal damages, Atique Mir, chairman Alliance of Market Association, he said.

Chairman, Korangi Association of Industry Mian Zahid Hussain, said power shortage is a big issue for the industry. He said, "Tareen had taken us into confidence that the government would deal with the energy crisis on priority basis in his meetings with our association." Now, the situation has become better for the industries specially in Korangi industrial area as load shedding is hardly observed.

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