Gurugram industries say prolonged power cuts causing losses

Industry owners of Manesar and Dharuhera on Thursday said they have been facing long power cuts for over a month now, resulting in production and supply loss. Members of the Industrial Model Township (IMT) Manesar Industrial Association on Thursday also met Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and apprised him of their situation. Officials of the power department, however, said the situation is likely to improve by only next month.

Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) distributes electricity and Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN) transmits electricity in IMT Manesar.

On Wednesday, the Manesar Industries Welfare Association (MIWA) also wrote to the power utility and apprised them of the problems being faced by factory owners due to the frequent power cuts. Manmohan Gaind, vice-president, MIWA, said that unscheduled night-long power cuts have become a regular phenomena in Manesar over the last couple of weeks, and it has impacted production. “Given the high price of fuel, using diesel generators for production will make the industry completely unviable. We request the government to purchase power from the neighbouring states to support the industry,” said Gaind.

Owners also said they had suffered huge losses for two years due to Covid and when they started recovering, unscheduled power cuts again hit their businesses, and despite paying extra time to the employees they are unable to generate any revenue.

Shalini Baweja, an industrialist in Sector 5, IMT Manesar, said that they tried using diesel generators but they were not enough to support their machines. “We manufacture tubs and cups for ice creams. This is peak production time for our business and we have not been able to deliver products for over a month due to the frequent power cuts,” she said.

Manoj Tyagi, an industrialist who manufactures garments in IMT Manesar’s Sector 7, said that the power cuts last between nine and 12 hours. “Production has been severely hit. Most owners are compelled to run diesel generator sets to ensure production doesn’t suffer, but how will we run our operations and pay salaries without revenue? We have to pay the industrial area ₹110 crore a year and we deserve basic facilities,” he said.

Owners said they were unaware of the reason for the power cuts, and despite repeated attempts, no authority would give them any clarity.

Deepak Duggal, an industrialist from Dharuhera who manufactures ice cream cones, said that government does not realise how costly it is to run a plant on diesel generator sets. “Production loss is unavoidable. Employees are idle all day and leave early as there is no work. Only a few small machines are operational and draw power from diesel gensets, which costs us around 1.5 times more than the regular supply,” he said.

PC Meena, DHBVN’s managing director, said that the situation will improve after May 15. “We will add 1,100 megawatts more to improve the supply. The area will get uninterrupted supply by the end of June. We are trying to buy more electricity from the power exchange. Due to the lockdown in China, we were unable to procure equipment that is on hold. Once it is done, the Hisar plant will add more than 600 megawatts to the supply,” he said.

Ranjan Rao, executive engineer, DHBVN Manesar, said that there has been a shortage of power from the grid. “The situation will remain the same for another month. We have decided to supply power on a rotation basis,” he said.