JOIN USMSMEs in Bengaluru's Machohalli hurt by power outages, poor quality of supply
Frequent power outages and poor quality of power supply are hurting the small-scale industries in Machohalli, a private industrial area near Magadi Road, Southwest Bengaluru.
Industries in the MSME category located in the area, such as plastic, powder coating, garments and chemicals, are electricity-dependent. Industrialists here say that they face two to four hours of power outage a day, resulting in Rs-8,000 losses a day.
The Machohalli Small Scale Industrial Association’s secretary Suresh N Sagar said the 1,500 industries here pay Rs 500 crore in taxes every year, despite which the area lacks even the most basic of infrastructure.
“We pay Bescom Rs 8 crore every year. Then why can’t we have uninterrupted power supply?” Suresh asked. The industries are incurring a 25 per cent loss in their turnovers currently and say their tax payments will increase by 25 per cent with the improvement in facilities.
Narasimha Murthy, who owns Fluid Air Systems Private Limited, said that the lack of intimation before power outages severely interfered with the production activities.
The 1,500 industries in Machohalli employ over 15,000 people, yet the place lacks proper roads, water facilities or streetlights.
“Despite (Karnataka) being a power-surplus state, industries aren't getting uninterrupted power supply mainly due to lack of infrastructure,” said Srinath Bhandari, another industrialist in the area.
Members of the association said that a writ petition filed by some farmers in the High Court of Karnataka was preventing a separate electrical tower being erected in Magadi Road for them.
The Machohalli Small Scale Industrial Association recently submitted a memorandum to the Bescom executive engineer, Tavarekere, Magadi Road division, seeking continuous power supply and ramping up the supply to higher megawatts as the industrial area is expanding.
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