Heavy rains takes toll on Gujarat industries

Industrial activity in Gujarat has taken a beating on account of the incessant rains in several parts of the state. Several manufacturing units have been filled with water.

Normal functioning of several industrial estates in Gujarat, including Makarpura and Nandesari in Vadodara, Panoli and Ankleshwar in Bharuch and Vapi in Valsad district, has come to a near standstill as there have been power disruptions and water logging.

The loss to industry as a result of the rains is, however, still being ascertained.

Meanwhile, Gail India and Gujarat Adani Energy have stopped piped gas supply as a precautionary measure in Nandesari Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Vadodara, which houses over 200 chemical units. Nandesari has been detached from National Highway 8 as the connecting bridge has collapsed, industries representatives said.

"No industrial activity has taking place in and around Nandesari due to water logging. It is also not possible to run plants as about 40 per cent of the units here are gas based and the supply has been discontinued to avoid any accident. Moreover the bridge connecting the estate with National Highway has also collapsed. The loss can be estimated in crores though it is not possible to visit the estate and estimate the damage to the units," said Chandrakant Dhable, president, Nandesari Industrial Association.

A huge amount of raw and ready material in the units have been washed away, added Dhable.

One of the largest industrial estates in the state, Makarpura Industrial Estate near Vadodara, which houses over 1500 industrial units, has also been affected. Water has entered the premises of several units.

It is also was learnt that operations at number of large sized units including Gujarat Alkalis and Chemical, Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals and ABB have been hit to a large extent.

A number of establishments including Indian Petrochemicals Corporation, the Gujarat refinery of Indian Oil Corporation and Gujarat Industrial Power Corporation, too, witnessed poor employees' attendance on Thursday.

Industrial activities in and around Panoli, Bharuch, Surat and Vapi in South Gujarat have fully or partially come to a halt.

The situation is similar in other parts of South Gujarat. "At the Panoli Industrial Estate, constant rainfall for the last four to five days has paralysed functioning. The operations have been mainly affected due to power cut as electricity network in the estate has been badly affected," said Babu Patel, president, Panoli Industrial Association, Panoli.

Meanwhile, transporters are finding themselves in trouble as transport vehicles are not in a position to move easily.

Tranport operators feel truck fares are likely to shoot up for few days as soon as roads will be ready for movements.

The transportation on National Highway 8, especially the stretch connecting Ahmedabad and Mumbai has been badly affected.

"We have reports of disturbance of traffic in South Gujarat and parts of Saurashtra. Large number of truck owners have reported damage to the material due to heavy rain, they are carrying. The industry already burdened with recent hike in diesel prices will be under more pressure if the same situation will prevail for couple of more days," said Mukesh Dave, general secretary of Akhil Gujarat Truck Transport Association.