They provide employment in rural areas, but the power distribution companies do not seem to have any consideration for them. Several industrial units located in rural areas are running losses and may have to be shutdown in future.
Hi-Tech Ceramics at Gopavaram in Musunuru Mandal of Krishna district produces high quality fire bricks used in furnaces and boilers, acid proof bricks and tiles used in a variety of industries. They supply to customers all over south India.
While coal is the fuel used for baking the ceramic bricks, electricity is required to run the grinding machines, heavy duty machines that compress the mixture to the required density before it is incinerated to high temperatures and made into a fire brick.
“Though we belong to Nuzvid we set up the plant at Gopavaram to provide employment in rural areas. Labour is available in sufficient quantity in this village. About 70 to 80 people work in the plant. A few skilled workers come from other states, but a lot of unskilled work force is from the village,” ceramic engineer and head of the plant B.Mukherjee told The Hindu .
But the advantage in labour availability was being cancelled by the disadvantage in acute shortage in power supply. The power cuts were bigger in rural areas, he said. They were running the factory on generator to meet deadlines. But this would turn out to be expensive in the long run, he said.
Other industries in rural areas were suffering double power cuts, said IMIS Pharma managing director V.V.M. Krishna.
“Because we are in rural areas the power cuts are longer then in the urban areas. And because we are industries were being made to observe the power holidays. We are facing double power cuts,” Mr Krishna said.
The use of generator would increase the production cost several times, he said.
