Southern India Shining

Maharashtra is not the only state grappling with acute power shortage and the situation is equally bad in 11 other states as temperatures soar to above 40 degrees this summer, a survey by Assocham has said.

Besides Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Meghalaya are in the grip of power shortage, according to the Assocham Eco Pulse Survey.

The energy deficit in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Haryana ranged from 7 per cent to 25 per cent in April 2005, the chamber said in a release.

NO POWER
1	Maharashtra
2	Gujarat
3	Uttar Pradesh
4	Haryana
5	Madhya Pradesh
6	Bihar
7	Delhi
8	Himachal Pradesh
9	Rajasthan
10	Jammu & Kashmir
11	Punjab
12	Meghalaya

Maharashtra, which recently faced a furore over long power cuts, is facing an energy deficit of 19 per cent. The peak shortage of nearly 4,000 MW in India's most industrialised state, has resulted in load shedding ranging from 4-8 hours a day in various regions across the state.

"Lack of fresh investment and modernisation coupled with huge transmission losses are responsible for the grave power situation in the country," chamber president M K Sanghi said.

Madhya Pradesh requires 3,003 million units, but has only 2,250 MU resulting in a deficit of 25 per cent.

The situation is no better in Gujarat where power deficit is 12.7 per cent. The availability in the state is only 4,766 MU against the requirement of 5,459 MU, the figures for April 2005 reveal. In Uttar Pradesh, deficit is almost 18 per cent with demand-supply gap well over 800 MU.

In terms of region wise comparison, the survey found that the highly industrialised western region was the worst hit in terms of energy deficit which was 16.7 per cent in April 2005.

The availability in the region was only 15,883 million units against the requirement of 19065 million units.

Northern region, where Uttar Pradesh is the worst hit, faced a deficit of 7.9 per cent with the demand-supply gap of 1,108 MU. Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan are better off while Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana and Punjab are badly hit.

Bihar, with 19 per cent deficit is the badly hit state in the eastern region which suffered a deficit of 4.4 per cent.

The southern region is better off facing deficit of only 0.8 per cent. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu had shortages of less than 1 per cent.

The survey said that the business leaders were concerned about the grim power situation in the country. Ninety-nine per cent of them blamed power theft, leakages and transmission and commercial losses as the main culprit.

The CEOs raised concerns over the rising T&C losses which ranged from 23.6 per cent to 75 per cent in various parts of the country in 2003-04.

All the industry leaders felt that the subsidising of electricity led to more wastage. Even if it was subsidised it should be for only certain number of units and beyond that, slabs for number of units consumed and the respective rates should be set, the survey said.