Karnataka - Mysore   

SSI units on the brink of closure

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

Discussions: Members of the MIA at a meeting in Mysore on Tuesday.

MYSORE: Small scale industrial (SSI) units in the city are tottering on the brink of closure owing to the escalating power crisis plaguing Mysore. Out of nearly 15,000 SSI units in the city, 60 per cent have closed down for various reasons. The remaining units, which are functioning at only 40 per cent of their installed capacity, risk being shut down due to intermittent power supply. The existing units are incurring heavy losses as unscheduled power cuts have affected the production and added to mounting expenses.

Members of the Mysore Industries Association (MIA), who held a meeting here on Tuesday, told The Hindu that the industry was just recovering from the economic slowdown and was flush with new orders. “But unfortunately the factories in Mysore are unable to fulfil the orders owing to nearly seven hours of power cut every day,” said Suresh Kumar Jain, secretary of the MIA.

A few industrial units are already considering relocating to Coimbatore and other industry-friendly places which will ring the death knell for the projected growth and development of the city, according to the MIA.

While the short-term impact is job loss and economic loss owing to production being cut, the MIA has cautioned that the long-term impact will have a negative effect on the industrial development of Mysore as the city will come to be associated with sick units or power crisis that will make investors think twice before establishing factories in the region. This view is endorsed by a few other members, including Shashidhar of the AMW MGM Forge Ltd.

“While we are prepared to handle the scheduled load shedding what is disconcerting is the unscheduled load shedding which adds to our mounting losses,” said Vasanth Pai of the LGB Forge Ltd. The company is toying with the idea of relocating to Coimbatore.

As against the demand of 675 MW of power for Mysore, Mandya, Chamarajanagar and Hassan districts which are served by Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Ltd (CESC) the supply is only 507 MW and the authorities are resorting to power cuts to offset the deficit of 168 MW.

Mr. Shashidhar explained that each time the power supply goes off, forging factories incur a loss of Rs. 18,000 to Rs. 20,000 as steel billets that are stuck in the machinery have to be cooled and retrieved. Once the power supply is restored they have to be heated again and the process done again which adds to the mounting expenditure.

Gurushantinath, an entrepreneur, said that he was shelling out Rs. 48 lakh per annum by way of electricity bill for power “not supplied” by the CESC.

The worst affected are the plastics industry, metal units, machine shops working on lathe, furnace units and heat treatment units which require uninterrupted power supply. Heat treatment and forging factories entail specialised job work and skilled workers are not easily available. Factories do not want to risk losing such workers and continue to retain them despite incurring losses.

In view of the escalating crisis, the MIA and other industrial representatives have urged the authorities to maintain a regular schedule of the power cuts so that they can plan their work.

They have also sought a ban on approving fresh connections till the power crisis is resolved but their plea has gone unheard.

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