Saturday, October 05, 2013: Those who stay in Noida know the state of power cuts! But that may soon be a thing of past. Every time a government comes to power, this is clearly one of their top agendas, that is to make Noida Industrial Area a no-power cut zone but nothing has been seen yet. It is practically impossible to get regular eight hours of power supply. This, in turn, is affecting the quality of electronic goods produced in the region.
Commenting on the situation, Aditya Ghildiyal, vice president, Association of Greater Noida Industries (AGNI) told Economic Times, “The international standard of fault in the electronic products manufactured in any corner of the globe is 0.1 per cent, while in Noida, it is more than that and the basic reason for this is the power cuts that has become a regular phenomena in the region.” He further said that there is a severe dearth of power supply in the region and even when it is supplied, no units are sure of the timeframe of its availability.
Pointing at the monetary dynamics that are a part of this power problem, Ghildiyal added, “To ensure uninterrupted power supply, larger units are going to diesel generators which costs around `18 to `20 per unit of electricity, an amount which is around 250 percent costlier than the normal rate. A small and medium sized unit, which works as a vendor to such giant players, are unable to produce quality products though they have the ability to produce goods of global standards.”
Vipin Malhan, who is the president of Noida Entrepreneurs Association (NEA) told ET, “Even though the giant players have gone for diesel power sets, their product quality is bound to get affected as they use a large number of products produced by small and medium enterprises operating in the region, who work as their vendors.” While he says that no industrial area in India has 24 hours power supply but they have been struggling to even get 10 to 12 hours regular supply in a day, which is the standard in southern and western parts of India. Moreover, this amount is only enough for small and medium enterprises, since their volumes are less and they do not operate in a 24 hours model.
Talking about the issues that industries face, VS Khurana, co-owner of Vidya Electrotech, a Noida-based TV vendor unit shared his story. “If we use diesel generators, it would enhance our input cost by around 5 percent because diesel generated electricity costs more than twice than the price charged by the government.” He said that even if there would be an announcement that power would be supplied regularly for around 10 hours in a stipulated time period, the small units in the region would be able to adapt in accordance to their requirements. Otherwise, there is no option but to shut down their units as their profitability margin has gone down to around 6 to 7 percent, which is less than what a bank gives for fixed deposit.
