KARACHI, Sept 18: Most of the industrial units in Sindh have installed their captive power plants and pulled back their connections from the Wapda’s grid system, industry sources said.

The sources said that over 90 per cent of industrial units in Kotri have installed their own power plants to ensure uninterrupted power supply.

Whereas industries in Hyderabad have totally gone out of Wapda’s grid system and have installed their own captive power plants.

In Nooriabad about 30 industries have got gas connections for their units. The power generated by captive power plants is not only cheaper than the power supplied by utility companies but one could ensure its continuous flow to keep the industry running.

There is a boom in industrial activity in Nooriabad, which can be gauged from the fact that not a single industrial plot there is presently available for sale.

The power supplied by utility company was not only costly but it also resulted in heavy losses to the industry, the chairman All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Sindh-Balochistan Zone) Mushtaq Ahmed Vohra told Dawn.

He said the frequent shut-down in power supply to the industry from utility companies does not only result in loss of working hours but also badly effects the quality of products.

Vohra said many industrial units had to withdraw their products from export market because they could not maintain their quality of products as sought by buyers in the world market.

However, he asked the WAPDA authorities to let the people know that where this surrendered power by the industry has gone. There is hardly any change and the load-shedding is still going on.

The Aptma (SB zone) chief appreciated the efforts made by provincial finance minister Dr Hafiz Sheikh and minister for industry and labour Dewan Mohammad Yousuf Farooqi for facilitating the industry in shifting to captive power plants and in getting gas connections.

Those days are not far off when the utility companies would be giving incentives to the people and industry for getting power connection because their present working is forcing the industry to go for their own power plants, he added.

Even today a cumbersome procedure with a heavy deposit have to be paid for getting power connection from a utility company and there is hardly any change in the system which is forcing the industry to go for captive power plants.