KARACHI: Industrialists have expressed concern over 8 hours long load shedding in industrial areas which will certainly have serious negative impact on industrial production which is the backbone of job creation in the city.
They demanded immediate restoration of power to all the indusial areas of the city as the load shedding would cause irreparable loss to the economy and many industries would be closed down.
They said that small industries usually run during daytime but due to 8-hour load shedding they are now forced to cut their production.
They feared that this kind of situation might lead to collapse of industries in Karachi, which generates huge revenue and provide employment to millions of people.
Industrialists expressed fear that if we once lose our hard earned export markets and once this is done, our markets will be lost to competitor countries.
Industrialists from North Karachi Industrial Area said 90 percent of more than 2500 industries housed in the North Karachi Industrial Area are export oriented units that are already faced with great hardship due to short supply of water and their problems are further aggravated owing to unannounced cut of power supply.
Industry suffering huge production losses and labour, including daily wage workers, sitting idle as no work is being done due to power failure.
President of SITE Association of Industry, Suleman Chawla strongly protested against 8 hours long load shedding in industries and appealed to authorities to save Karachi's industries from disaster and K-Electric should be directed to provide uninterrupted power to industries.
He added that in a recent meeting with SITE industrialists, K-Electric assured that no load shedding will be done in industrial areas but unfortunately, K-Electric has backed out from its commitment and started 8 hours long load shedding in SITE area.
On the protest of SITE Association, K-Electric once again assured that there will be no load shedding in SITE area from Monday, 29th June. "But K-Electric has now given schedule for load shedding on Tuesdays & Thursdays," Chawla remarked.
President SITE Association further said that coronavirus has already damaged our industry and the national economy as a whole. Industries are battling for their survival and the recent load shedding by K-Electric will force them to close down.
Explaining how load shedding effects industrial process & production, Chawla said that if a boiler stops working due to load shedding, it takes about 3-4 hours to resume its operations which causes huge losses to the industry concerned.
Suleman Chawla has demanded immediate end to load shedding in SITE industrial area.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020