Increased Power Supply in Hetauda Industrial Area Gives New Life to Factories

Hetauda Industrial Area (HIA) has been getting an additional 5 MW of power since last November. The increased power supply has given new life to the factories located in the area, as they can operate three shifts per day due to the increased power supply, reports The Kathmandu Post.

Why it matters:

• The total energy requirement of HIA is 8-10 MW. The recent additional power supply makes the total regular power supply to 10 MW.
• The factories in the HIA could barely operate two shifts in a day due to the repeated power cuts which occurred almost daily. This increased power supply will allow smooth operation of the factories and also allow newer factories to start their operations.

What they are saying:

• Nawa Raj Acharya, president of the Makwanpur Industries Association, said, “In the past, factories had a hard time operating even two shifts, but most of them are now regularly running three shifts.”
• Entrepreneurs said that factories suffered more due to erratic power cuts than scheduled outages. “The circuit breaker used to trip 15 to 20 times a day due to overloading, which increased chances of damage to machinery,” said Acharya.
• Nepal Bhusan Baidhya, head of Hetauda Industrial Area Management, said, “These new firms started production as soon as the industrial area was supplied with additional power.” He added that the new factories were operating on 20 bighas of land of Hetauda Garment Factory.
• “Another 2 MW of electricity can be supplied to factories in the industrial area,” said Suraj Kumar Shah, an engineer associated with Hetauda Industrial Area Management. He added that they were working to boost supply by an additional 5 MW in the next six months.
• Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) officials claim to be making efforts to eliminate load-shedding totally. Currently, there are 3 hours of load shedding daily.

The Details:

• NEA began feeding an additional supply of 5 MW of electricity to the industrial area over a transmission line from the electricity sub-station at Kamena in Hetauda.
• The Hetauda Industrial Area hosts 87 factories. Currently, 29 new factories are being constructed while four remain closed.

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