May 1: Production of industries along the Bara-Parsa Industrial Corridor has come to a standstill due to the disruption in power supply. Industrial establishments in the area have not been supplied with electricity for four days.

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has announced 12 to 16 hours of load shedding in the industrial areas on a daily basis. However, the industries complain that power supply has been totally cut off.

Hari Gautam, vice-president of the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the production of industries in the corridor has dropped to zero after the power supply was cut off. The champer estimates that there are 2,000 small and medium scale industries in the region.

According to the NEA, it has failed to supply electricity to the industries after India halted the supply 500 MW of electricity for the industries. India itself is facing an energy crisis due to the shortage of coal in the wake of Russia-Ukraine war.

India has stopped exporting electricity to Nepal for its internal supply.

Jitendra Kumar Jha, head of NEA Birgunj Distribution Center, said that 500 MW of electricity coming from India has now dropped to 36 MW.

“The supply to industries in the Bara-Parsa corridor has been cut off. At present, electricity is being supplied only to the household consumers. It may take a few more days to provide electricity to the industries,” said Jha.

The NEA had promised to supply to the industries alternately but the power supply was completely cut off due to the failure to bring electricity from India. 

Jha also informed that efforts are being made to resume the supply of electricity. "Efforts are being made to supply electricity. Electricity is likely to be supplied to the industries as early as Tuesday,” he said.

NEA has informed that 40 percent of the water of Kulekhani project has been consumed. NEA is under pressure to make arrangements for distribution of electricity generated from the remaining 60 percent water. According to the NEA, the shortage of energy will remain unless the flow of water in the rivers increases.