Seven different districts of Jharkhand, falling under DVC Command area including Dhanbad, Bokaro, Giridih, Chatra, Koderma, Hazaribagh and East Singhbhum, is plagued with acute power crisis. The long hours of power failure is affecting the trade and industry of these towns.
DVC supplies around 660 megawatt power in seven districts of Jharkhand through JBVNL and has launched 50% of load shedding since November 6 to realize its pending dues worth Rs 2110 crore over JBVNL. Load shedding was temporarily suspended during the Chhath festival, but power cuts are back once again.
The situation is somewhat better in Dhanbad town area, which is connected to the national grid through the newly established Kandra grid substation but the situation in suburban parts of the district including, Katras, Sindri, Jharia, Baghmara, Nirsa as well as other six districts is pathetic.
Talking to The Telegraph Online today, Rajiv Sharma, General Secretary of Jharkhand Industries and Trade Association (JITA) said, “The industry is yet to come out of the losses it had to incur because of the pandemic. But it is gradually picking up momentum. However, the power crisis is creating undue pressure on this sector.”
Echoing a similar sentiment, Nirmal Jhunjhunwala, President of Giridih Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, “More than six hours of load shedding is being carried out by DVC in Giridih which is greatly affecting over a dozen large industries besides over 100 medium and small scale industries which are dependent on DVC power supply for industrial growth.”
“Out of 18 large industries, majority of which are iron and steel industry, only six which have direct industrial connection of DVC and they are unaffected due to the frequent power cuts, while around a dozen others having the connection of JBVNL are suffering due to the long hours of power cuts and so is situation of 100 other , micro , medium and small scale industries also taking power from JBVNL,” further explained Jhunjhunwala. He further expressed anguish over the fact that common consumers were being penalised for no fault.
