TIRUPUR: The knitwear town, and its periphery have been experiencing for the last one month an unscheduled power cut every day for one-and-a-half hours in the morning and 45 minutes during the peak evening hours.

Official sources in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) attribute this to inadequate transformer capacity at Arasur sub-station in Coimbatore district and Engur sub-station in the neighbouring Erode district, which feed power to the Tirupur division.

As the knitwear, textile and engineering sectors in the region are expanding fast, the 500 KVA capacity at Arasur and Engur sub-stations is proving to be inadequate. Though Tamil Nadu generates surplus electricity, lack of transformer facility remains a cause for concern in this region, sources say.

With no indication of a capacity increase in the immediate future, the duration of power cut will only go up in the ensuing summer as little wind energy is generated during this period. The sources claim that they had somehow `regularised timings' for load shedding on a rotation basis. Consumers were aware of the timings to get accustomed to it even without a proper announcement, they added.

Production hit

Tirupur Industrial Federation president Ahill M.S. Mani said the unscheduled electricity cuts affected production at a critical period. He said inverter units that were necessary for imported machinery often failed owing to the power cut and consumption of diesel by generator sets increased input cost. "Those who do not have generator sets are the worst affected, '' Mr Mani said.

According to sources, Tirupur tops in revenue generation for TNEB with a collection of Rs. 2 crore a month, from over one lakh domestic consumers, 27,500 commercial consumers and nearly 22,500 industrial consumers. Official sources hope that installation of the Palladam sub-station will be over in six months, and that will bring some relief to the consumers in the southern parts of Tirupur.

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