Mubashir Aalam Wani
Srinagar, Oct 28: The ongoing power crisis in Kashmir has had its cascading effect on the repair and maintenance of the transformers, an essential component for the power distribution system.
The valley is grappling with poor electricity supply, which has brought every sector to its toes.
With domestic consumers subjected to the major hours without electricity supply, commercial connections too rue the erratic supply of power.
This is happening despite the electricity department issuing its curtailment schedule for the winter season.
The transformer repairing firms said their losses have accumulated to more than 50 per cent this season due to the lack of proper electricity.
“The power supply is very poor which has affected our repairing work. Our work entirely depends on electricity without which we can’t do anything. For the last two months, our losses have gone up to 50 percent,” Jalal-ud-din Wani, president of Kashmir Transformer Repair Association.
The association is functioning under Small Scale Industrial Units (SSIUs), a private body working in collaboration with the Jammu and Kashmir Industries and Commerce Department.
As per Wani, currently 25 units of transformer repairing units are functioning in the valley. These units as per Wani use generators as an alternative source to the electricity, which escalates their cost of repairing the damaged transformers.
Against 50 transformers a day, Wani said these 25 units manage to repair only 20 transformers a day due to the lack of electricity.
“The smooth supply of electricity helps us to repair maximum transformers. Right now we can repair only 20 transformers a day which is very low compared to the number of repairs we used to have during this season,” he said.
Meanwhile Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir (FCIK) said that transformer repairing units were among the most hit industries due to the lack of electricity this season.
“A number of industries have been hit due to the erratic power supply. We have transformer repairers, cold storages and other industries we are at the suffering end of currently. The government should do something to ensure proper power supply to the industries so that production doesn’t come down,” said President FCIK Shahid Kamli.
As per the industrialists, the ongoing power crisis within the valley has brought down production by more than 60 per cent in the industrial sector.
President Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) Javaid Ahmad Tenga said they are getting SoS calls from various industrialists about the impact of the poor electricity supply.
“Handicraft artisans and dealers have been constantly telling us about the suffering of the sector due to the current power crisis. The tourism sector has also started facing problems now. There is a massive drop in production by industries currently,” he said.
