Gurgaon industries running on diesel

GURGAON - More than 15,000 industries based here have lost up to Rs.200 crore due to power cuts since the start of the summer season, officials said Friday.

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

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

The Gurgaon Industries Association (GIA) said 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 hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Supply is being disrupted either due to frequency drop or load shedding as all substation transformers are overloaded,” said GIA president Raj Singla.

“Smaller entrepreneurs are suffering heavily. Production levels have been curtailed. Unable to meet supplies to their principals, their orders are being short-closed,” he added.