Gurugram Factory owners, operating out of Udyog Vihar, have sought relaxation in restrictions placed upon the use of diesel generators (DGs), during bad air days.
Owners on Tuesday wrote to the Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (Epca) in this regard, stating their businesses would be adversely affected, citing a lack of uninterrupted power supply by the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN).
The letter has come in view of the ban on the use of DGs by the Epca, in Delhi and neighbouring cities, on days with ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ air quality from October 15.
There are 2,200 small and medium factories, of which most are IT (information technology) units that use DGs to run computers 24 hours a day.
The factory owners’ letter came a day after the district administration, on Monday, issued comprehensive directions to various government departments to implement the Epca order with an eye on the air quality.
The administration’s directions said that the air quality would be considered ‘very poor’ if finer particulate matter (PM 2.5) ranges between 121mg/m3 and 250mg/m3, ‘severe’ when it goes beyond 250mg/m3 and an ‘emergency’ when it goes beyond 300 mg/m3.
Factory owners, however, said they have not received any communication from the government or district administration on the ban yet. “We feel it is appropriate to inform Epca, which has taken the air quality matter in consideration, in the larger interest of the people, that DGs are backbones of our IT units and we meet required parameters approved by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB), which annually monitors DGs. It cannot be ideal to ban their use completely,” the letter stated, adding that they learnt about the ban only from media reports and fear its adverse impact on their business.
{{/usCountry}}Factory owners, however, said they have not received any communication from the government or district administration on the ban yet. “We feel it is appropriate to inform Epca, which has taken the air quality matter in consideration, in the larger interest of the people, that DGs are backbones of our IT units and we meet required parameters approved by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB), which annually monitors DGs. It cannot be ideal to ban their use completely,” the letter stated, adding that they learnt about the ban only from media reports and fear its adverse impact on their business.
{{/usCountry}}The letter stated that DGs are a must for each factory because the electricity supply is erratic and is not available 24 x 7. “All the DGs being used by us meet the noise or air pollution norms,” said Animesh Saxena, president of Udyog Vihar Industrial Association.
The owners said that almost every unit is hi-tech and uses data servers/switches, computers, computerised machines, etc, which need uninterrupted power supply throughout the day, failing which there would be massive loss of data/damage to software, hardware and the equipment.
“We will stop DGs provided the DHBVN ensures us uninterrupted electricity supply. The Haryana government has repeatedly announced 24x7 electricity supply to industries in the last 10 years, but it has not translated into reality,” said Ashok Kohli, a factory owner.
The owners said that in case the ban is not withdrawn or modified, it will cause irreparable loss to them.
Sanjiv Chopra, DHBVN’s chief engineer, said, “We are supplying 24x7 electricity to industries as well as other areas of the city, as there is no dearth of electricity. The outages take place due to local reasons, such as faults in cables, transformers, etc. However, in our smart grid project, all such faults would be reduced to zero as overhead wires will be placed underground.”
Amit Khatri, deputy commissioner, said, “We have to implement Epca directions and accordingly, I have issued orders to respective government agencies or heads to prepare to tackle the air quality situation.”
HSPCB is the nodal authority that has been issued directions by the Epca. “We have issued directions as per Epca order to the district administration to implement it,” said an HSPCB official adding that Epca has called a meeting of nodal authorities in Delhi on October 18 in this regard.