Factories forced to shut down, suffer huge losses; hundreds of workers go without work
VALPOI
In a shocking situation, there has been no power supply in the industrial estates at Honda and Pissurlem in Sattari taluka, causing huge losses to dozens of factories and no work to thousands of employees.
Some factories have even been forced to shut down operations during these three days in the absence of power supply.
According to estimates, there are about 50 factories at the Honda Industrial Estate and about 50 factories at the Pissurlem Industrial Estate, which employ thousands of workers.
An official at the Sukraft paper mill at the Honda Industrial Estate said they were forced to shut down operations at their unit due to non-availability of power supply for the last three days.
“This situation has arisen for the first time in the history of this industrial estate. Senior power officials have been contacted several times but till now, power supply has not been restored,” the official said.
“Due to this disruption in power supply, the company has sustained losses worth crores of rupees. Many workers are working in this unit on a daily basis and since the unit has been closed for three days, they are also unable to earn their livelihood.”
Most of these factories at the two industrial estates do not have their own generators and depend entirely the government for power supply.
Several industries at Honda and Pissurlem have expressed displeasure and anger over the disruption of power supply over these three days.
“Despite complaints, authorities do not appear to have taken any steps to resolve this power crisis. We are getting only assurances that the issue will be solved shortly. But due to disruption in power supply for the last three days, industries have suffered huge losses. Many units have shut down operations and production activities have come to a standstill. This has also left workers without any work at these units,” said an official of a factory.
Most workers at these two industrial estates at residents of Sattari and Bicholim talukas and have been directly affected due to an absence of power supply.
They have now begun appealing to Health Minister and Valpoi MLA Vishwajit Rane and Poriem MLA Deviya Rane to intervene in the matter and resolve their power issue.
Despite attempts, officials of the electricity department did not provided information regarding the cause of the power failure at the two industrial estates in Sattari.
