ICCI, IESCO meeting: Industrialists rue continuous load-shedding

IESCO chief gives assurance; says problem will be resolved.

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Muzammil Hussain Sabri, in a meeting, lamented the hours-long load-shedding and complained to Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) that it was causing industry failure.

This was conveyed to Iesco Chief Executive Malik Yousaf Awan on Friday.

Addressing the ICCI delegation, Awan said he was fully aware of the difficulties of industrialists due to the energy shortfall and assured that Iesco would explore all possible options to maximise electricity supply to industries.

He said that Iesco has scheduled four hours of load-shedding due to the energy deficit. He added that the duration of power shutdown will be slashed to two hours at a time in order to provide relief to the industries during production hours.

He said Iesco intended to provide maximum facilitation in power supply to industry but due to rise in power shortfall, the company was compelled to resort to load management.

Sabri said that load-shedding has rendered a large number of workers idle and badly affected production activities. He was afraid that if power shutdowns were not controlled, the industry would be unable to meet production orders and there can be a huge rise in unemployment.

He said that Iesco should finalise the load management programme in consultation with business community so that a consensus solution of energy shortage could be explored and industry could be saved from further losses.

Former ICCI chief Khalid Javed said that electricity was the key input of the steel industry, adding that it normally takes one hour in warming up due to which the industry cannot afford a stretch of four hours in load-shedding. He urged Iesco to facilitate industrial activity.

Another former chief of the ICCI, Tariq Sadiq, said that industrialists are ready to fully cooperate with the government to resolve the energy crisis. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2015.

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