The Industries located in Lasbela District of Balochistan are facing severe difficulties to continue production and they are on the verge of collapse due to more than 12 hours load shedding since last few days. This was stated by Dr Muhammad Aslam, President, Lasbela Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).
He said that most of the industries particularly small industries usually run during the day time but due to 4 hours load shedding in the morning they have been forced to cut their production to about 50 percent. This is in addition to gas load shedding in the industries which is making things more difficult.
Dr Muhammad Aslam apprehended that this kind of situation may lead to collapse of the only industrial area in Balochistan which generates more than 90 percent of the revenue being collected from Balochistan, and giving employment to more than 30,000 people.
He urged the KESC to exempt Hub industrial area being the part of Balochistan from load shedding, as the utility is getting 100 percent payment of bills from the areas. He also urged the Sui Southern Gas Company to continue the Gas supply of required quality to Hub industries at required level of pressure, in order to ensure the continuity of production in the industries.
Meanwhile, Abdul Wahab Lakhani, Chairman, S.I.T.E. Association of Industry has strongly reacted to massive load shedding of 12 hours daily being carried out by KESC in industrial area. He said that they received an e-mail from DGM System Operation, KESC which stated that due to continuous low gas supply, KESC had to resort to load shedding for its industrial consumer in two groups.
In group (1) from 0800 to 1200 hrs and in group (2) from 1200 to 1600 hrs. It means there will be load shedding of 8 hrs daily. "Now in the second half again we have received another SMS from KESC saying that due to further gas reduction from SSGC an extra load shedding will take place on all the industrial feeders of Karachi from 7.00 pm to 11.00 pm that means another load shedding 4.00 hrs in addition to 8 hours in the morning," he added.
Apart from load shedding the Sui Southern Gas Company has intimated that due to Annual Turn Around of Zamzama Gas Field, there will be a short fall of 204 MMCFD from today till November 4, 2010. This dual squeeze, ie load shedding and Gas curtailment is bound to have a fatal blow to the very survival of industries in Karachi. "At this time when the calendar year is closing and the exporters have to fulfil their shipment commitments we can not afford to have a slow down for any reason.
WE are sure to lose our hard earned markets and once this is done, our markets will be lost to competitor countries," he added. He urged President, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Governor and Chief Minister of Sindh to act urgently not only to save the Industry but from saving the country going back in reverse gear to 1947 level, when Pakistan was a net importing country.-PR