Gurgaon industries lose Rs.200 crore due to power cuts

GURGAON - Most small and medium industries here are running on diesel due to heavy power cuts since the start of summer and have lost up to Rs.200 crore in delays or loss of production, the Gurgaon Industries Association said Friday.

Many units were getting only three hours of power supply for the past 20 days. “We were expecting the power cuts but not to this extent. There have been days when we got only 15 minutes of power in a day. The business has been affected a lot,” said one industrialist.

“The industries are burning diesel worth Rs.4-6 crore every day to run their operations. The backup costs a lot,” said another.

According to GIA, the units had received only 90 hours of electricity supply in 23 days.

“Udyog Vihar is not getting electricity supply for even three hours on an average every day as against the scheduled eight hour supply from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Supply is disrupted due to frequency drops or load shedding because all sub-station transformers are overloaded,” said GIA president Raj Singla.

About 15,000 industrial units are located in Gurgaon, Manesar and nearby areas. The bigger industries like Hero Honda have their own power plants. It is the medium smaller enterprises in the readymade garments, telecom equipment, footwear, electrical and sports goods sectors that suffer the worst.

“Their production levels have been curtailed… Their orders are being short-closed,” Singla added.