Monsoon eases power crisis in Gujarat

With third spell of monsoon hitting the state of Gujarat, both agriculture and industrial sectors have heaved a sigh of relief. At the same time, the demand for power has also come down.

Meanwhile, the state government has decided to reduce the power holiday by one day. Earlier, the state government had declared additional two days of power cut along with regular one day in a week for non-continuous industrial users of power.

The state government had also directed continuous processing units to reduce their power consumption by 20 per cent. The decision to reduce one day power cut as well as units having continuous process can also now continue their operations at normal rate.

"The decision has been taken in view of rains in the state during last few days," said Saurabh Dalal, minister of power and energy for the state of Gujarat.

Demand for power had reached to nearly 9,900 MW at one point in the past week. This had now come down to about 8,650 MW on account of showers in most parts of the state during last three days. Farmers did not use pumpsets to water their fields as a result. However, the state government was not able to supply more than 8,100 MW.

The Saurastra region and other parts in North Gujarat witnessed heavy rainfall on Wednesday resulting in lower usage of pumps and motors for irrigation. South Gujarat too witnessed rains in the last three days.

With rains in last few days, farmers in the state with sowing on nearly 84 lakh hectare of agricultural land were now feeling secure.

Farmers in the state expected the current Kharif season to be very good in view of a promising beginning of the monsoon.

Industries preparing for the upcoming festive season said they were delighted with the state government's decision to reduce the power cut.