The Hindu : Business : 12 States heading for power crisis

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 24, 2005

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Business

12 States heading for power crisis

Special Correspondent

Southern region fares better with shortage less than one p.c. `Lack of fresh investment and modernisation coupled with huge transmission losses are responsible for the grave power situation.'

NEW DELHI: Even as Maharashtra is grappling with an acute power crisis, the situation is in no way better in 11 other States with the temperature soaring to above 42 degrees in various parts of the country this summer.

An Assocham (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India ) Eco Pulse Survey has revealed that Apart from Maharashtra, states including Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Meghalaya are in the grip of power shortages. In particular, the energy deficit in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana ranged from seven per cent to 25 per cent in April 2005, not only adversely impacting industrial production and agriculture but also making life difficult for the common man.

Maharashtra, which recently faced a furore over stoppage of free power to farmers, is now facing long power cuts, as the energy deficit is about 19 per cent. The peak shortage of nearly 4,000 MW in the country's top industrialised State has led to load shedding ranging from four-to-eight hours a day.

"Lack of fresh investment and modernisation coupled with huge transmission losses are responsible for the grave power situation," the Assocham President, M. K. Sanghi, said in a statement.

As for some of the other states, Madhya Pradesh requires 3,003 million units (MUs) but has only 2,250 MUs, which works out to a deficit of 25 per cent. The situation is no better in Gujarat where the power shortage is 12.7 per cent as the availability is only 4,766 MUs against the need for 5,459 MUs, as per the data for April this year. In Uttar Pradesh, the deficit is much higher at almost 18 per cent with the power shortage being well over 800 MUs.

The survey revealed that the highly industrialised western region was the worst hit in terms of energy deficit at 16.7 per cent in April.

In the northern region, the situation is slightly better as the worst-hit State of U.P. faced a deficit of 7.9 per cent with the demand-supply gap of 1,108 MUs. Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan are better off till now while Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana and Punjab are badly hit. In the eastern region, while the overall energy deficit was only 4.4 per cent, Bihar was the worst affected State with a deficit of 19 per cent.

For the country as a whole, the southern region was in the best situation with a mere 0.8 per cent deficit, while Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu faced shortages of less than one per cent.

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