In yet another blow to the state industry, the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has imposed two-hour daily powercut and peak load restrictions for five hours daily.

The recent order of the PSEB to cut power supply daily for two hours in the morning and restrict peak load from 4.30 pm to 9.30 pm daily is likely to hit the industries, already battling the economic meltdown, hard.

While the mandatory 34-hour per week powercut was continuing since December, the local industry is forced to slow down its manufacturing process and reduce the number of shifts with the power shortage plunging further, said Chanalon Industries Association president T P Singh.

“In the present system, industrial units do not even get eight hours of uninterrupted power supply during the day,” Singh said.

The worst-hit local industrial units are left with no option but to give an extended leave to majority of the staff to compensate for the increasing loss due to all-time low working hours.

“The state government is inviting the corporate world to invest in the industrial sector in Punjab but the present situation has made the fate of the existing industry uncertain,” rued industrialist Paramjeet Singh.

“If the Punjab government is unable to provide requisite infrastructure for the survival of the existing industry, it should stop giving misleading statements about promoting industry and generating employment. Rather, it should ask industrialists to shift base,” opined industrialist Anil Kumar.

The global financial crisis coupled with power crisis and government apathy has severely affected over 1,500 micro and small-scale industrial units in Mohali, Dera Bassi and Chanalon, where over 1.25 lakh people have been employed. Most of the local industry is engaged in manufacturing engineering goods and automobile parts.

“If the government cannot provide adequate power supply to the industry then it should subsidise extra cost incurred by industrial units in generating power using alternate means,” an industrialist said.