Power crisis heats up Bihar cold storages

About 40 per cent cold storages in Bihar are being shut down owing to the power crisis plaguing the state. Many of them which are still operating are either working on low margins or are running at a loss.

"Due to erratic power supply and rising fuel prices, the operating costs of cold storages are going up every day. This has put a heavy pressure on their profitability", said K P S Keshri, president of Bihar Industries Association.

'' The state government is working on new power generation projects and have taken steps to curb transmission and distribution losses. We are hopeful the state would have sufficient power supply in a couple of years,'' Keshri added.

According to Bihar Industries Association, the state has about 500 cold storages. Most of them are located in Nalanda, Vaishali, East Champaran, Gaya and Saran. But in all these districts, poor power supply is proving to be a bane for the cold storages.

In Patna and Muzzafarpur, where the power supply is satisfactory, the situation is slightly better.

The cold storages require 12-15 hours electricity daily. However, the supply in most of the districts is less than 12 hours.

The owners are forced to run fuel-guzzling generators to keep the storages operational.

"We end up using diesel worth Rs 10,000 to12,000 on days when the electricity supply falls to a mere eight hours per day", said Amit Sahu, a cold storage owner in Buxar.

In June, the price of diesel was raised from Rs 32.87 to 34.96 a litre.