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Lockdown, breezy summer hit Bathinda’s room cooler industry
There are around 100 factories engaged in manufacturing of room coolers and ancillary units in Bathinda, making it the hub of cooler manufacturing sector in the region
The air cooler manufacturing industry of Bathinda, which is considered to be the largest in Punjab, is severely hit by lockdown due to coronavirus outbreak and a cooler summer this year.
There are around 100 factories engaged in manufacturing of room coolers and ancillary units in Bathinda, making it the hub of cooler manufacturing sector in the region.
Industry sources say that against the average production of five lakh units of coolers, this season, the local units may not be able to supply half of it due to low availability of trained workers and steel sheets.
A leading cooler manufacturer and ex-president of the Bathinda industrial growth centre, Kapil Goyal, said that since steel plants are not fully functional, cooler manufacturing sector is facing a shortage of raw material.
“When lockdown was imposed in Punjab on March 22, manufacturers had a stock of raw material for a few days. As manufacturing began from May 5, there is no supply of steel sheets. Moreover, transporters have increased charges and the frail industry is unable to bear the additional expenses,” he said.
Vikram Lakhi, president of the North India Cooler and Fan Manufacturing Association, said that Bathinda caters to the demands of markets in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and parts of western Uttar Pradesh, but the prevalent climatic conditions are giving a severe blow to the cooler sector.
“Maximum temperature even in the semi-arid areas of southern Punjab is hovering around 35 degree Celsius. Owing to the ongoing climatic conditions, the demand for coolers is quite low. It is unfair to charge average electricity bill for the period when manufacturing was prohibited by the state government,” said Lakhi.
Another entrepreneur, Ashu Goyal, said the Bathinda cooler industry has a sizeable dependence on workers from other states who are not ready work in Punjab right now.
“During lockdown, the workers were duly provided food and wages but as factories resume operations, workers have refused to work. We lost our peak season of manufacturing coolers to the lockdown and the future seems bleak,” he said.
