HYDERABAD/VIJAYAWADA: Vast swathes of southern India across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka stared at dark days and huge industrial losses as the southern power grid creaked on Monday with workers at generating units shutting down thermal plants.
As blackouts worsened, protesters in the Seemandhra region, angry with the AP bifurcation plan, blocked highways and crippled movement of goods in the eastern-southern corridor across Odisha, West Bengal, TN and Karnataka. In Odisha, the blockade has already resulted in skyrocketing of prices of essential commodities.
Protesters have sporadically blocked national highways passing through Seemandhra for the last two months. But now, with the movement to keep Andhra united reaching a crescendo, trucks were forced to halt at several places for hours, disrupting freight movement from Tamil Nadu to West Bengal. All Seemandhra districts are connected with one or the other national highway right from Srikakulam to Nellore in the coastal part and all the four districts of Rayalaseema.
As protests showed no sign of abating, Vizianagaram, where shoot-at-sight orders were issued, remained under curfew for the third day after widespread violence. Police said at least 34 people have been arrested from the area.
The protests also threw train schedules off-track and forced scores of cancellations because there was no electricity or tracks were blocked by activists. And there was warning that situation would only worsen as Seemandhra electricity employees remained unrelenting.
Apprehending the crisis could lead to the collapse of the southern grid, power officials from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry sought the intervention of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) which in turn directed AP officials to ensure that the crisis didn't spin out of control. The collapse of the southern grid will lead to a total blackout in the southern states.
The crisis aggravated after the striking electricity employees, who have already ensured a shut down at various power generating stations across the Seemandhra region, resorted to halting the distribution network from Sunday. This resulted in a blockage in the supply of power because of which there was a danger of the power grid frequency dropping below the permitted levels of 49.5 hertz and leading to the tripping of the entire southern grid.
State power officials in turn cut generation by 3,000 MW on Monday, from 10,734 MW to 7,400 MW, causing massive disruption across the 13 Seemandhra districts and the major towns and municipalities, including Visakhapatnam. Hyderabad too had to bear the onslaught with power cuts and surgeries had to be cancelled and ATMs stopped working.
While protests from Srikakulam to Nellore have crippled the transport of goods between Kolkata-Chennai, blockades in Krishna district have brought transport vehicles to a halt between Chennai-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Kolkata, and Vijayawada-Jagadalpur highways. Roadblocks in the Rayalaseema region have hit movement the Chennai-Bangalore highways.
"The delay in each day's journey is resulting in a huge financial burden as we are forced to pay additional freight and demurrages for delay in meeting the supply deadlines," rued L Kantha Rao, a chilli exporter of Guntur. A wholesaler, Rao sends stock to international merchants in Kolkata who insist on strict delivery and shipment schedules. While it used to take just 48 hours to reach Kolkata from Guntur, now there is no guarantee that the stocks will reach even in four days, he explained.
Similarly, granite exporters from Ongole are losing heavily due to missed shipment schedules. "We cannot oppose the agitation as that could anger protesters. At the same time, we are worried about having to pay huge penalties in Chennai for the delays," said Dinakaran, a native of Tamil Nadu, who owns a black galaxy granite quarry and polishing unit near Chimakurthy in Prakasam district. Chimakurthy is just four hours from Chennai but trucks are now taking 12-16 hours.
"The transport sector is in fact the biggest sufferer as no lorry owner is getting regular freights. Worse, they have to pay huge installments to financiers of the vehicles though they have no income," said G V Ramesh of the Krishna district lorry owners association.
Nearly 10,000-15,000 lorries and big vehicles move on the national highways regularly and the owners of most of the vehicles are in huge losses because of the protests. Agriculture produce like rice, dal, chilli, tobacco and corn are transported to other states and ports through the highways while local traders import electrical, apparel, automobile items and fancy goods through the highway sector.
"There is no escape route for us as all the metros from where we import stocks are connected to the highways located in the Seemandhra districts and we are having to bear the brunt," said Kanthilal Jain, a wholesale electrical dealer in Vijayawada.
source: The Times of India
As blackouts worsened, protesters in the Seemandhra region, angry with the AP bifurcation plan, blocked highways and crippled movement of goods in the eastern-southern corridor across Odisha, West Bengal, TN and Karnataka. In Odisha, the blockade has already resulted in skyrocketing of prices of essential commodities.
Protesters have sporadically blocked national highways passing through Seemandhra for the last two months. But now, with the movement to keep Andhra united reaching a crescendo, trucks were forced to halt at several places for hours, disrupting freight movement from Tamil Nadu to West Bengal. All Seemandhra districts are connected with one or the other national highway right from Srikakulam to Nellore in the coastal part and all the four districts of Rayalaseema.
As protests showed no sign of abating, Vizianagaram, where shoot-at-sight orders were issued, remained under curfew for the third day after widespread violence. Police said at least 34 people have been arrested from the area.
The protests also threw train schedules off-track and forced scores of cancellations because there was no electricity or tracks were blocked by activists. And there was warning that situation would only worsen as Seemandhra electricity employees remained unrelenting.
Apprehending the crisis could lead to the collapse of the southern grid, power officials from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry sought the intervention of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) which in turn directed AP officials to ensure that the crisis didn't spin out of control. The collapse of the southern grid will lead to a total blackout in the southern states.
The crisis aggravated after the striking electricity employees, who have already ensured a shut down at various power generating stations across the Seemandhra region, resorted to halting the distribution network from Sunday. This resulted in a blockage in the supply of power because of which there was a danger of the power grid frequency dropping below the permitted levels of 49.5 hertz and leading to the tripping of the entire southern grid.
State power officials in turn cut generation by 3,000 MW on Monday, from 10,734 MW to 7,400 MW, causing massive disruption across the 13 Seemandhra districts and the major towns and municipalities, including Visakhapatnam. Hyderabad too had to bear the onslaught with power cuts and surgeries had to be cancelled and ATMs stopped working.
While protests from Srikakulam to Nellore have crippled the transport of goods between Kolkata-Chennai, blockades in Krishna district have brought transport vehicles to a halt between Chennai-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Kolkata, and Vijayawada-Jagadalpur highways. Roadblocks in the Rayalaseema region have hit movement the Chennai-Bangalore highways.
"The delay in each day's journey is resulting in a huge financial burden as we are forced to pay additional freight and demurrages for delay in meeting the supply deadlines," rued L Kantha Rao, a chilli exporter of Guntur. A wholesaler, Rao sends stock to international merchants in Kolkata who insist on strict delivery and shipment schedules. While it used to take just 48 hours to reach Kolkata from Guntur, now there is no guarantee that the stocks will reach even in four days, he explained.
Similarly, granite exporters from Ongole are losing heavily due to missed shipment schedules. "We cannot oppose the agitation as that could anger protesters. At the same time, we are worried about having to pay huge penalties in Chennai for the delays," said Dinakaran, a native of Tamil Nadu, who owns a black galaxy granite quarry and polishing unit near Chimakurthy in Prakasam district. Chimakurthy is just four hours from Chennai but trucks are now taking 12-16 hours.
"The transport sector is in fact the biggest sufferer as no lorry owner is getting regular freights. Worse, they have to pay huge installments to financiers of the vehicles though they have no income," said G V Ramesh of the Krishna district lorry owners association.
Nearly 10,000-15,000 lorries and big vehicles move on the national highways regularly and the owners of most of the vehicles are in huge losses because of the protests. Agriculture produce like rice, dal, chilli, tobacco and corn are transported to other states and ports through the highways while local traders import electrical, apparel, automobile items and fancy goods through the highway sector.
"There is no escape route for us as all the metros from where we import stocks are connected to the highways located in the Seemandhra districts and we are having to bear the brunt," said Kanthilal Jain, a wholesale electrical dealer in Vijayawada.
source: The Times of India
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