Industrial associations to discuss plan of action

Major industrial associations meet today to finalise future line of action against 12-hour power outages in Karachi.

KARACHI: The major industrial associations of Karachi will meet today (Saturday) to finalise the future line of action against the 12-hour power outages in the industrial areas of the city.

The revised schedule of power outages with increased hours for industrial zones comes as a shock to industrialists as earlier these areas enjoyed exemption from the Karachi Electricity Supply Company (KESC) outages.

Increased power outages in industrial areas started earlier during the week when the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) informed KESC that it would not be able to maintain gas pressure because of annual maintenance at the Zamzama gas field.

“Enough is enough. Industries cannot bear 12-hour outages as structural problems are already growing in the wake of increasing cost of doing business,” said Johar Ali Qandhari, chairman Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (Kati).

Kati officials had convened a meeting on Thursday to discuss the issue. During the meeting, the government was urged to resolve the standoff between SSGC and KESC, who are at loggerheads over the circular debt issue.

The government was also requested to sanction between 200 and 300 megawatts of additional electricity to KESC from the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) in order to improve supply to industrial areas in the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2010.