Damodar Valley Corporation has launched 12 hours of load shedding in view of pending dues worth Rs 2110 crore Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam (JBVNL) owes to it. The decision is badly affecting trade and industrial activity in these seven districts lying in its command area including Dhanbad, Bokaro, Giridih, Koderma, Hazaribagh, East Singhbhum and Ranchi during the festive season followed by marriage season.

D Dey Chief Manager(Commercial) of DVC in his letter to general manager (C&R) of JBVNL said, “Due to part payment of Rs 100 crore the total undisputed dues has come down to Rs 2110 crore as on 31 October 2021. Furthermore JBVNL has not submitted a clear roadmap on the liquidation of outstanding dues despite various reminders made by DVC through letters.”

“This is badly affecting DVC’s working capital and it is not in a position to liquidate its liabilities mainly towards coal payments which in turn is affecting the thermal power generation,” reads Dey’s letter.

“If JBVNL fails to liquidate any dues DVC is entitled to regulate the contracted capacity as the close of PPA,” further reads the letter and added that in view of the above DVC is going to regulate power by 300 Megawatts by November 6.

Notably at present it supplies around 600 Megawatts of water in its Command area in Jharkhand.

Nirmal Jhunjhunwala, President of Giridih Chamber of Commerce while expressing disgust over the situation said, “Load shedding of over 12 hours is going to affect the industry badly, which is already suffering due to the pandemic and is slowly limping back towards normalcy.”

He further questioned DVC opting for power cuts in the name of outstanding dues during the festive time and said, “If the state government also stops mineral and manpower for the DVC plant it will further affect DVC business.”

“The industries can’t run through generators and UPS and instead require continuous power supply during operation hours,” said Jhunjhunwala.

Notably over 100 pig iron and TMT bar factories are functioning in Giridih.

Echoing the same, Rajendra Vishwakarma, president of Bokaro Chamber of Commerce said, “The long hours of power disruption will badly affect the smooth operation of core sector industries including the rolling mills which requires continuous power supply for proper functioning, and thus we are appealing both DVC and JBVNL to sort out the issue and ensure continuous power supply to industries.”

Notably over 250 industries majority of whom supply parts to Bokaro Steel industry are situated in Balidih based industrial park of Bokaro Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA).

Rajiv Sharma, General Secretary of Jharkhand Industries and Trade Association (JITA) said, “Power supply, roads etc are the primary infrastructure required for industrial growth in any area and if the situation continues like this the industrial growth of the state will be negatively affected.”