Goa industries association slams govt over electricity woes

An association of industries in Goa on Monday said member units were facing power outages despite it agreeing to bear the extra cost of the state government buying electricity from the open market.

Goa State Industries Association president Damodar Kochkar said the outages were a result of poor power distribution infrastructure in the state, adding that industries were not bothered by a slight rise in tariff but electricity must be available for them to carry out operations.

The Goa government had agreed to procure 120 MW of power from te open market after several industries associations spoke of bearing the cost as frequent load shedding was bringing about loses to their businesses.

He said a plot was given to the electricity department in Verna Industrial Estate in South Goa to set up a sub station to cater to units there, but it was catering to all coastal villages in the vicinity and was overloaded.

The state is collecting infrastructure tax and must upgrade power utilities immediately to give relief to industries, Kochkar said.

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