Power supply position for industries in Madurai seems to have deteriorated with many industrialists complaining of erratic supply in the last few days.
Around 50 industrialists staged a demonstration in front of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) office at Kappalur near here on Wednesday seeking assured power supply.
J. Selvam, president, Kappalur Industrial Estate Manufacturers’ Association, told The Hindu that uneven power supply and repeated changes in load shedding schedule were gravely affecting industrial production.
“The officials want us to have load shedding between 9 a.m. and 12 noon, which is impossible to bear with. It is the peak work hour and it would affect almost half the industries at Kappalur industrial estate,” he said. The industrialists are demanding only two hours of load shedding, which should be effected between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. P. Sitaraman, past president of the association, claimed that unscheduled load shedding occurred three to four times during the night.
“We are unable to plan our production. Continuous processing industries such as plastic require pre-heating for one and a half hours every time they start production. These industries are facing 40 per cent production loss,” he said. He suggested that the TNEB could resort to the earlier system of power holiday for one day of the week.
Residents in rural areas of Madurai say that nearly four hours of load shedding is being carried out every day in place of the scheduled three hours.
A resident of Tirumangalam said that while the stipulated duration of load shedding was three hours, some areas experienced over four and a half hours of load shedding on Wednesday.
They requested the TNEB to consider splitting the three hours of load shedding into two rather than effect three hours at one stretch.
When contacted, a top official denied that there was any unscheduled load shedding. He denied that rural areas were subjected to four hours of load shedding.
