Panaji Apr 19 PTI A day after Goas industry bodies agreed to bear the cost of purchasing additional power to meet their demand Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday gave his approval for purchase of electricity from open market The chief minister has given the approval to purchase 120 MW power from open market which would be supplied to the industries a senior official said The industry bodies had on Monday written to the state government raising concerns about the acute power shortage in the coastal state which had resulted in load shedding and affected operations The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industries GCCI Goa State Industries Association GSIA and Goa Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers Association GPMA wrote to Sawant and State Power Minister Sudin Dhavalikar expressing their concerns The industry associations also met Dhavalikar to discuss their issues Since March industries have been facing acute power shortage due to constant load restrictions of up to 12 hours per day imposed by the government the letter jointly signed by chiefs of all the three associations stated Quoting their meeting with the power minister on Monday the associations had said that to address the power deficit additional electricity will have to be purchased by the state government However the rise in the traffic in the IEX market has increased the cost substantially and the government finds it difficult to bear this burden the letter states As far as the industries are concerned due to the current restrictions on load they have to run their units on generators at a much higher cost they said This also increases pollution and has a negative impact on the environment the association said suggesting that the cost of purchasing additional power may be billed to all EHT and HT consumers in the state till June 30 PTI RPS ARU ARU

Panaji Apr 18 PTI Three major industry associations in Goa have written to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant over load-shedding in the state and said they are willing to contribute to purchase additional power to tide over the situation The letter was sent to Sawant and state power minister Sudin Dhavalikar on Monday by Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industries GCCI Goa State Industries Association GSIA and Goa Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers Association GPMA Since March this year industries are facing acute power shortage due to constant load restrictions as much as 12 hours per day imposed by government To address deficit additional power will have to be purchased by the government However the rise in the traffic in the IEX market has increased the cost substantially and the government finds it difficult to bear this burden said the letter The letter said in order to tide over this situation the cost of purchasing this additional power may be billed to all EHT and HT extra high tension and high tension consumers in the state till June 30 The electricity department should bill only for actual additional power purchased for this period for avoiding load shedding and no other charges should be passed on to the consumer the letter added PTI RPS BNM BNM