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Power-cuts plague Pune IT units

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

Arunima Nath

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PUNE: Frequent power cuts are proving to be a major stumbling block in the way of development of the IT industry in Pune, affecting its business and reputation in the global market.

Even as Pune is fast emerging as a major IT hub in Maharashtra, acute shortage in the supply of electricity is sending shock-waves among the IT units, which have to depend heavily on power generating sets to remain up and running.

Against the daily demand of 730 mega watts of electricity, the city gets only 550 mega watts, leaving a deficit of 180 mega watts.

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Most IT industries operating out of Pune have installed gensets to ensure uninterrupted power supply. According to Abhay Joshi, chief engineering officer, Disha Technologies, this adds an additional financial burden on the industry.

Moreover, he points out, there is also the danger of the genset stop working, resulting in considerable loss to the IT companies.

The worsening power situation also affects the image of the Pune-based companies in the eyes of their foreign clients. It becomes difficult for the IT companies to convince their foreign clients that the project would be completed on time. What embarrasses them most while foreign clients visit is the irritating sound the gensets make.

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Voicing similar concerns, Anuradha Kanitkar, chief operations officer, Harbinger Techventures, said her company can not depend on the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) for uninterrupted supply of power.

Speaking to CyberMedia News RB Gautam, chief engineer MSEB, Pune zone, said power shortage was a statewide problem. He said the MSEB was planning to buy power from the eastern grid to meet the shortage during the summer.

He said only the IT industries located in the city's industrial area were facing power cuts whereas those located in the city have the provision of drawing power from the 'express feeder', which is a high power separate line where no power cuts take place. But this facility can be availed by the big IT companies and not by smaller ones.

He said the commissioning of two power stations at Parli and Paras by September this year would generate 250 megawatt of power each, easing the power supply situation.

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