KARACHI: Industrialists have urged the government to immediately install rental power plants in order to properly deal with the energy crisis, which is hampering industrial production in the country.
The government should immediately bring in rental power systems and provide electricity for the energy starved industry, otherwise coming summer would be very fretful for both commercial and domestic consumers.
Naeem Ilyas Khanani, patron in chief and founder chairman of Port Qasim Association of Trade and Industry (PQATI), told The News that current shortfall of 500 megawatts in the city owing to the closure of Bin Qasim power plant, made the industry suffer a lot.
He said the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) is not utilising its full production capacity despite a visible fall in international prices of furnace oil.
Moreover, unscheduled load shedding has severe fallout for industrial production which can easily be tackled. The government has been reiterating since last 12 months that rental power plants would be installed to deal with the energy problem in the short term but nothing has been done so far in that regard.
We request the government to instantaneously bring in rental power plants to feed the industry; if not, then this summer will be devastating for the industrial production, he said.
M A Jabbar, Chairman SITE Association of Industry (SAI), said load shedding was the result of circular debt which has to be taken care of. Shaukat Tarin, Adviser to the PM on finance, had repeatedly mentioned tackling of energy crisis by resolving the problem of circular debt during his visit to Karachi. The KESC retains 1,200MW capacity, which shows that the KESC has enough installed capacity which is not being utilised. The KESC intends to use gas instead of oil, one of many problems why power production falls short in Karachi. The government should pressurize the KESC to increase and deploy its full power production capacity, he said. In addition, the government should notice that the KESC is violating its own commitments by not investing in power generation to scale up the current production capacity. Moreover, rental power plants are the only viable option for fast track process to grapple with current power crisis. Investment comes where investment is secure and infrastructure is sound; investors are very sensitive to the political instability in Pakistan; our country is severely hit my terrorism, militancy, and various other problems.
The government should take concrete measures to stabilize its economy for short and medium terms, he urged. Industries in Pakistan are closing down owing to serious crises including high interest rates, power shortage and high cost of production. Moreover, today there are some 10 to 20 per cent industries only in SITE industrial zone which are on the verge of closure, he observed.
Mian Zahid Hussain, Chairman, Korangi Association of Industry (KATI), said power shortage is a big issue for the industry. He said: Tarin had taken us into confidence that the government would deal with the energy crisis on priority in his meetings with our association.
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