1 Hour Powercut For Coimbatore
Facing a shortfall of 1,000 MW of power, the Tamil Nadu government on Friday announced a staggering power holidayâ for industries in the state to tide over the prevailing power crisis.The Electricity Minister, Mr Arcot N Veerasamy after a meeting with industrialists here, told newspersons that the state faced a shortfall of 1,000 MW of power due to failure of Southwest monsoon and less power generation from wind energy. To tide over the crisis, it was decided to divide the state into six zones and declare one-hour power cut in each zone in a week, he said.Farmers, drinking water supply units and milk dairies would, however, be exempted from the staggering holiday, Mr Veerasamy said, adding there would be no power cut during nights in the interest of students. Uninterrupted power supply would be ensured in villages.
He said the government expected to generate 2,700 MW of power from wind energy but due to lack of wind, only 1,800 MW of power was generated. Similarly, power could not be generated from hydel power stations following failure of Southwest monsoon, he explained. As the state got only 60 per cent of power from the central pool, there was a shortfall of 1,000 MW of power a day and a similar situation prevailed in the neighbouring states, Mr Veerasamy said.
The staggering holiday would help the state save 375 to 400 MW of power and the government expected 500 MW of power from captive power generation. The one-hour power cut in Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli and Coimbatore corporations and two-hour power cut in municipalities would help to save 300 MW of power, he said. The minister said the Chennai Corporation would be divided into eight zones and the one-hour power cut would be in force in one of the eight zones daily, he said.
Mr Veerasamy said that while comparing other states, the power position in Tamil Nadu was better. Recently, the Andhra Pradesh government had appealed to the people to switch off lights, fans and air conditioners during daytime and this was not the case with Tamil Nadu, he said. He said the state government was taking all steps to augment power generation by about 5,000 MW by 2009-10.
Mr Veerasamy said industries which generated captive power using furnace oil have been given VAT exemption. They demanded that similar exemption be extended to industries which generated power using diesel and a final decision was yet to be taken, he added. It was broadly agreed to share the loss of revenue due to tax exemption - 60 per cent by the government and 40 per cent by the industries - and a final decision in this regard would be taken after consulting the Chief Minister, Mr M Karunanidhi and the Finance Minister, Mr K Anbazhagan, he said.The demands of micro and small industries would also be discussed with the Chief Minister and the government would take a decision, he said.
