Chitwan, June 1

Industries including those manufacturing plastic are incurring heavy losses owing to the irregular power supply in Chitwan.

Power cut takes place frequently without prior notice. Entrepreneurs and businessmen say that it is better to have load-shedding than to have the irregular power supply.

Chitwan Association of Industries chair Bhesraj Duwadi said irregular power supply had caused heavy losses to industries. “Plastic industries are hit hard by the unannounced load-shedding. The irregular power supply has caused the machines to go dysfunctional,” said Duwadi. He said their repeated pleas to the Nepal Electricity Authority had fallen on its deaf ears.

Province 3 chapter of Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry vice-chair Rajan Gautam said it was better to have load-shedding than to get power supply irregularly. According to Gautam, if load-shedding is fixed, machines will be operated and workers can be mobilised for work as per the load-shedding schedule.

Chitwan Plastic Entrepreneurs’ Association chairman Ram Parsad Gajurel said entrepreneurs were incurring heavy losses owing to lack of regular power supply. Gajurel complained that their request to the NEA to supply power regularly had gone unheeded.

Hamal Plastic Industry Proprietor Jit Bahadur Hamal at Bharatpur Metropolitan City-3 said entrepreneurs had never incurred such heavy losses before. Hamal bemoaned that it would be hard operating industries if the situation remained the same.

NEA Chitwan distribution centre Chief Suresh Kumar Mahato attributed road expansion work for irregular power supply. Mahato said the current problem would last for two more months. “The problem will be solved once the windy season is over,” Mahato added.

More than 40 small and big industries are operating in Chitwan. The NEA Chitwan collects around Rs 120 million in revenue from 79,000 electricity customers.