KARACHI, Aug 28: The manufacturing and production process of the city’s five main industrial areas has been badly affected due to continuous power breakdowns.
Businessmen said that they are unable to fulfil their commitments made with the international business community for scheduled shipments of consignments. This situation is spoiling the reputation of exporters, as well as that of the country abroad, besides depriving much needed foreign exchange yield, they added.
They said that July is the first month of the new financial year 2002-2003, and it seems that the target for exports for the current month of $850 million seems unachievable. The government has set the export target of $10.2 billion for 2002-2003.
“Feeder tripped and grid failure” are the buzz words being frequently repeated by KESC officials when asked to give reasons for the power failures, they added.
According to a spokesman of the North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry (NKATI), the managing director of the KESC recently said in a meeting that the latest equipment has been installed, but the ongoing hide and seek of electricity has exposed the KESC chief’s claims about new equipment.
“Industrialists in North Karachi have suffered power failure for at least 16 hours in the last 24 hours,” the spokesman added.
He said it is generally implied that the KESC is mainly concentrating on increasing its tariff, and is harassing manufacturers in one way or the other to collect more and more revenue instead of improving its power generation and supply system.
A number of industries — particularly export oriented units — have installed power generators in the last one and a half years to offset the impact of load shedding by the KESC.
“How long will a generator run if the power failure exceeds by (a) day or two,” chairman Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), Farhan-ur-Rahman told Dawn on Wednesday.
A standby generator usually runs for maximum seven to eight hours a day, but it cannot be used for a full day, he said. The Korangi industrial area comprises of over 2,500 industries, the majority of which are export-oriented.
Chairman SITE Association of Industry, Dr Arshad Vohra also shared the same plight of industrialists with reference to load shedding in his area.
“We had suffered more than 50 per cent production losses on the first day when rain washed the city, causing massive power breakdowns,” he said, adding that their production losses these days are over 30 per cent.”Light is coming and going. There has been no consistency in power supply till today,” he added.
The Council of Karachi’s Industrial Association (CKIA) also condemns the incapability of the KESC to provide proper service to the end users.
An NKATI spokesman said that the industrialists have reached the conclusion that the KESC is behaving like an enemy to the industry for its destruction and consequent bankruptcy of the industrialist, who is bound to pay wages to his idle labour during the period of 16-20 hours when there is no electricity.
Industrialists have urged the government to restore its confidence in the industry by taking suitable and timely measures for revolutionizing the KESC operational machinery before the industry’s ship sinks.
President Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Haroon Bari also opposed the petition of the KESC to increase its tariff, which is set to increase the cost of production, rendering exports uncompetitive in world markets and creating problems of supplying goods in the domestic market at affordable prices.
In 2001-2002, the KESC was allowed an upward revision, but its service remains mediocre. He said Karachiites are now exposed to untold miseries and hardships due to persistent power failures during sizzling heat.
