GEB announces one day industrial power cut

The Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) has announced one-day power cut for the industrial sector on Saturday, which will be effective from Monday in Gujarat.

The power cut will be applicable to all non-continuous processing industrial units. The board had decided earlier to provide power supply for the entire week after most parts of states witnessed heavy or moderate rain fall last month.

An increased demand from he agriculture sector is stated to be the reason for the power cut to industry.

This is the second time in this season that industries in Gujarat will not get power for all seven days of the week.

Production cycles in industries are likely to be disturbed again even as industrial production was beginning to gather momentum after heavy rainfall in central and southern parts of the state for over 15 days. The week-long truckers' strike in August also had badly affected the production.

The Gujarat Electricity Board had announced an additional power cut for a day for industries in the state from July 20, which continued for 10 days in the state.

There was shortfall of about 1500 MW power as demand from the agriculture sector was soaring due to delayed rain. The industrial chambers and associations had criticised the additional power cut severely then, demanding immediate withdrawal of the power cut.

"We are just continuing with the regular staggering, which was in place before the monsoon. The demand from agriculture has increased as Gujarat has not witnessed much rain in last 15 to 20 days. GEB had to announce power cut to meet the increasing demand from the agriculture sector," said a spokesperson at GEB.

However, the GEB officials are not sure how long the power cut will continue. The consumption of power during the current monsoon season has risen to touch the 8000 mw mark last week.